From Hip Hop to Healing to Intercultural Identity, Raj Delights with INTERCULTURAL

TORONTO, April 24, 2023 /CNW/ - Canadian National Exhibition stages another powerful exhibition at its Withrow Common Gallery. Internationally awarded and critically acclaimed artist, educator and author, Sheinina Lolita Raj returns to the place (Toronto) that formed the foundation for her ground-breaking Hip Hop photography. Part retrospective, part rehabilitative, part exploratory and all intercultural, Raj uses sound, video and photography to tantalize the senses and explore multiple topics: what it is to be a woman here with roots elsewhere; how sound can mend in a quadraphonic collaboration with Nelly Furtado; videography and photography that map Sheinina's artistic journey; and a return to the Architects of Hip Hop as Hip Hop celebrates its 50^th anniversary. At first sight, the random combination and collection of cultural dresses and sound deeply rooted in traditions combined with scenes of Hip Hop culture, will strike the visitor with the realization of how new cultures emerge and that music shapes them.

INTERCULTURAL exhibition featured at the CNE's Withrow Common Gallery beginning April 28th. (CNW Group/Withrow Common Gallery)

Raj has pursued the portrayal of what it is to be intercultural – to have more than one base. She has sought out the traditional garb of women in twenty-five countries and, using her image as the model, adorned the traditional outfits and photographed her image transposed across twenty-five countries' traditions. Winner of the most innovative artist award at World Art Dubai, INTERCULTURAL returns to Toronto after a 7-year hiatus. Prime Minister Trudeau voiced in support of the INTERCULTURAL Exhibition: "… it is our openness and multiculturalism that will prove to be the foundation of our future prosperity."

Further, in collaboration with Nelly Furtado, Raj deployed instruments that historically belonged to various cultures to create a healing sound space disseminated through brilliant quadraphonic sound. Attendees will have the opportunity to listen, experience, and heal before jettisoning into Hip Hop memories at the Gallery's Pod D. The last portrait before Pod D is of a modern woman that defines herself as Sheinina Llolita Raj, the Artist. 

Raj's photography of Michie Mee, The Circle, Kardinal, Choclair, Rascalz and Sauktrates entrenched her as a go-to music photographer. Her support for the emerging genre led to gigs creating album art for Maestro Fresh Wes, Ghetto Concept, 2Rude, Baby Blue Sound Crew and Blacklisted. CNE's Withrow Common Gallery is pleased to present the return of this legendary photography as we map Raj's artistic evolution.

The INTERCULTURAL Exhibition at CNE's Withrow Common Gallery will be featured in Doors Open Toronto, celebrated during Multiculturalism Day and will join in celebrating Hip Hop's fiftieth anniversary.

Opening Reception: April 27^th, 6 – 9 pm (RSVP at [email protected]) 
Opens to Public: April 28^th; Closes: Canada Day, July 1^st 
Open Doors Toronto: Artist Tour/Book Signing: May 27-28, 11 am to 4 pm 
For further information: www.withrowcommon.ca
Gallery Curator, Lyudmila Bezpala-Brown ([email protected])

SOURCE Withrow Common Gallery

Brynn Farren, 4162633818, [email protected]