{"id":37614,"date":"2026-02-05T15:42:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37614"},"modified":"2026-02-05T18:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T23:40:24","slug":"black-female-entrepreneurs-celebrated-in-new-royal-rose-exhibition-unspoken-words-is-new-show-by-artist-chika-oh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/black-female-entrepreneurs-celebrated-in-new-royal-rose-exhibition-unspoken-words-is-new-show-by-artist-chika-oh\/","title":{"rendered":"Black female entrepreneurs celebrated in new Royal Rose exhibition: \u201cUnspoken Words\u201d is new show by artist Chika Oh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Words can tell a story, but artist Chika Oh is a firm believer than a picture can say 1,000 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nigerian-born Toronto-based artist has always found it easier to express herself through a visual medium, and she\u2019s letting her brush and canvas do the talking in \u201cUnspoken Words\u201d, a new solo exhibition that opens at Aurora\u2019s Royal Rose Gallery this Thursday, February 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unspoken Words brings together original canvasses \u201cexploring memory, silence, and embodied truth,\u201d showcasing leading Black female entrepreneurs, just in time for Black History Month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe inspiration is really the women,\u201d Oh tells The Auroran. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different layers I\u2019m playing with in textures, layers and portraiture, so when I meet someone in real life and I\u2019m experiencing them, the colours represent the texture, the layers and the depths of the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was extremely intentional that I chose entrepreneurs and women. There are so many different layers of being a woman. Oftentimes women are mothers, entrepreneurs, pillars of the family, so all of those complexities and the depth of each of those positions they hold, that\u2019s what I was trying to translate onto the canvas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The medium of paint and canvas was also very intentional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh says that visual art is her language, noting that she can \u201cget a lot more meaning\u201d out of her art rather than, for instance, writing an essay on the same subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe canvas has all of the words that I am not able to communicate, that I\u2019m not able to say,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is just my interpretation [of my subject] the best way I can, understanding that it\u2019s never going to be perfect, but at the same time, [engagement] doesn\u2019t just stop at the canvas; it actually continues when the viewer sees the canvas. The story continues. When the viewer is inspired or connects with the canvas, that is an extension as well, just like when we meet people. We\u2019re inspired by the different stories, whether it\u2019s resilience, whether it\u2019s triumph, whether it\u2019s Black history, whatever they\u2019re inspired by. Capturing that on canvas is the best way that I was able to do that. It\u2019s never really finished, it\u2019s never really done, but it\u2019s a story that continues to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solo exhibition, she adds, is a \u201clegacy-building\u201d event that she\u2019s designed to break down barriers, move forward, and \u201cbring what I have to offer to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was very excited for the opportunity to do so in a way that is well outside my comfort zone and outside of the studio,\u201d says Oh. \u201cOur story is like unspoken resilience, that creativity that we, the representation that we want to have \u2013 just showcasing that in a physical manifestation of the canvases outside of ourselves so that we can see it and then, also, others can engage and connect with that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnspoken Words\u201d opens at the Royal Rose Gallery, located on the west side of Yonge Street, just south of Wellington Street, in Aurora\u2019s downtown core, on Thursday, February 5, from 6 \u2013 9 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event will feature words from Oh, as well as spoken word artist Rita Cahil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words can tell a story, but artist Chika Oh is a firm believer than a picture can say 1,000 words. The Nigerian-born Toronto-based artist has always found it easier to express herself through a visual medium, and she\u2019s letting her brush and canvas do the talking in \u201cUnspoken Words\u201d, a new solo exhibition that opens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9MG","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 21:43:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37617,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37614\/revisions\/37617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}