Cover photo credit: Mohammad Sadiq
On Friday January 23, at 5:30 p.m., Gary Weekes, a Fredericton-based artist, photographer, and recognised CBC Black Changemaker, opened his exhibition Trayces at the University of New Brunswick (UNB)’s Art Centre in Memorial Hall. The exhibition is a partnership between the UNB Arts Centre and the Human Rights and Equity Office. The event opened in the East Wing, featuring floating posters of remarkable Black New Brunswickers, as MLA David Coon, Historian Jennifer Dow, and finally Gary Weekes, delivered powerful speeches.
Coon reminded the room that 2026 marks 100 years of Black History Week globally, and 31 years in Canada.
The exhibition itself was in the West Wing, where the pièce de résistance—the portraits printed on aluminium baking trays—revealed the root of the title Trayces.
Weekes intended the scarring and blemishes that appear from baking to imitate the ritual of scarification, a West African rite of passage. He also mentioned his appreciation for the shades of brown that he found himself able to reproduce to replicate the Black diaspora.
Weekes expressed that his inspiration stemmed from another book of photography about the brutal past of oppressors lynching Black people in the American South. He recalled the book spoke of the open fire pits oppressors dug to burn the flesh of the Black persons killed after lynchings. Weekes said, “The burning of Black flesh was not a cremation, but entertainment—a further degradation of a human by their oppressors.” He intended Trayces to remind viewers of the unspoken horrors of enslaved Black people in North America, and to promote awareness and discourse about it.
Weekes expressed that the way he designed the exhibition, with the portraits hung on all four walls, aims to make the visitors feel the gaze of all those on display. He did not intend it as a challenge or confrontation, but as an invitation and a depiction of guardianship and support. Thus, Weekes invites UNB students and community members to reflect upon Black history through a personalized lens.
Jen Wambolt, an exhibition goer, said, “It was beautifully done … It just shows the struggle of Black people in New Brunswick … It’s unrealized, the struggles … They escaped the U.S. to come to Canada, seeking freedom, only to be enslaved just outside the capital city [Fredericton].”
As Joanne Owuor said in her speech at the opening ceremony, “Art becomes a human rights practice when it insists on presence, when it refuses erasure, and when it invites us to witness one another with care.”
If you are interested in visiting the Trayces exhibition, it will be available for viewing at the UNB Art Centre in Memorial Hall from January 23 to March 27, 2026.
