‘Living Portraits’ invites city hall visitors to engage with local Black artists

The Living Portraits installation at city hall, unveiled on Jan. 31, 2026. (Galen McDougall/CTV News Edmonton)

The City of Edmonton and Edmonton Arts Council have launched a public art and augmented reality exhibition that highlights 20 local Black artists in a series of panels installed at city hall.

“Living Portraits” explores portraits of Black artists across three stages: Look, Approach and Engage.

The exhibition, which was unveiled Saturday and will remain in city hall until June 16, was curated by Darren Jordan and sculpted by local artist Shoko Cesar.

“When you come in, you’ll see this array of melanated people. You don’t know who they are. What you do know is they’re similarly dressed and holding a red apple … they have a sigil on their pin,” Jordan explained at unveiling Saturday afternoon.

“What the installation does is invite you to approach and once you’ve gotten past that first impression, you go around the back, you see the same people, but they’re no longer holding a red apple. They’re holding a version of whatever their craft is.”

The piece then aims to engage visitors by offering a QR code. When scanned, a video of the person featured in the artwork appears.

“By the time you’re done, you know a fair amount about the person you were looking at,” Jordan said. “It’s kind of a metaphor for how one might stand up against racism, how one might stand up against limited thinking.”

Jordan credits Cesar for a panel full of surprises which were “meticulously put together.” Cesar, in turn, credits Jordan for his vision.

“(It’s) the idea that an artist is always being the arts, and now for the first time, they see themselves in front of the actual art. They are the arts. They are the subject of the art,” Cesar said of the inspiration on Saturday.

The installation’s public launch coincides with Black History Month, which is recognized throughout February.

The City of Edmonton partnered with the Edmonton Arts Council in 2023 to create the Anti-Black Racism Action Plan. “Living Portraits” is a feature of the plan’s call to include “cultural and artistic programming from diverse Black communities at city hall,” a media release said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Galen McDougall