Letitia Fraser

“A giver of themselves and their resources.
A receiver who takes graciously, but gives back fully.
Everlasting abundance.”
—Letitia Fraser

Letitia Fraser paints portraits on quilt-inspired canvas surfaces to establish important interconnections between kinship and comfort. Quilts have an accessible familiarity, and speak to intergenerational mobility, inherited traditions, and the empowerment to celebrates one’s distinct presence, legacy and visibility.

Fraser celebrates the sophisticated designs embellished through the labour of quilting’s piece-by-piece sewing tradition. She paints people with gentle brushstrokes, carefully providing a setting of warmth, protection, and shelter. Fraser has an ability to capture her subjects’ unique qualities and the monumentality of each person’s individuality, strength and vulnerability. In her own words, she aims “…to show her community as they are, not as they appear to be.”  

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Letitia Fraser is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work centres around her experience as an African Nova Scotian woman, growing up in the province’s Black communities of North Preston and Beechville. Descending from a long line of artists, Fraser’s creative instincts were nurtured early in life. Through a combination of painting and textiles, she unearths previously untold narratives and pays homage to her community’s history of quilting. Recent exhibitions include Family Patterns with Darcie Bernhardt at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (2022); Every Chain at the Chester Art Gallery, Halifax (2022); Letitia Fraser at Mount St. Vincent Art Gallery, Nova Scotia (2019); and Mommy’s Patches: Traditions & Superstitions at the Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia (2019). She graduated with a BFA from NSCAD University in 2019. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2018 Nova Scotia Talent Trust RBC Emerging Artist Award and was recently longlisted for the 2022 Sobey Art Award. Her work is included in several private and public collections including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Scotiabank, the Canada Council and the Wedge Collection.