Hannah Somers “The Music Sang ‘Lean On Me’”

September 23 – October 4, 2026
Opening: Friday September 25, 6-9 pm
Gallery Hours: 12 pm to 5 pm, Wednesday to Sunday
Artist Talk with Hannah Somers and Farihah Aliyah Shah
Date: October 3, 2026
Time: 11am-12:00pm

EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION AND ARTIST STATEMENT:

Exhibition Description

In her exhibition The Music Sang ‘Lean on Me’, Hannah Somers investigates her own identity by returning to her roots, creating visual conversations between her mother and aunt, biracial twin sisters adopted into a white family in the 1960s and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. Through photography and video, Somers explores the circumstances of their upbringing and its effects on their racial and social identities, examining their role models, relationships, and experiences of visibility within a predominantly white community.
Always conscious of the attention they received and the stereotypes that shaped perceptions of their Black identity, the sisters recount growing up without familial connections to their heritage or the Black community. Instead, they found points of identification and belonging through figures in popular culture and the media.

In an ongoing expansion of the project, Somers turns to collage to revisit her mother and aunt’s experiences through her own perspective as a daughter and niece. Drawing on family archives, found imagery, and textiles, she reframes their stories through questions of individuality, visibility, stereotypes, and perception, shaped by their intimate and intergenerational relationship.

In collaboration with Emilie Croning, Curator & Founder, EMC Contemporary

Artist Statement

In the process of investigating my own identity, I return to the root of my questions and curiosity. I create a visual conversation between my mom and aunt as they recount the circumstances of their upbringing and its effect on their racial and social identities. I investigate their influences, role models, and relationship with each other through imagery, discussion, and gesture.

Biracial twin sisters, adopted into a white family in the 1960s and raised within a predominantly white community in Sarnia, Ontario, did not go unnoticed. Always aware of the eyes upon them and the stereotypes that shaped their Black identity, they became conscious of the way they portrayed themselves and how others viewed them. Through lighthearted conversation, they recount growing up without familial connection to their heritage or the Black community. In response, they idolized and felt connected with figures in popular culture and the media.
In the stories shared between two sisters, overlapping video of their collage-making and their riffling through books and magazines of Black representation, I seek to juxtapose the intimate with the distant.

The method of organizing the figures they relied on to define their identity becomes deconstructed into a different form through my image-making process. The gestures of the sisters’ hands as they physically interact with the cut-outs and books they’ve chosen to collage lead the viewer to question the reasons for their specific choices and placements within the frame. The imagery of iconic figures is recontextualized through their hands and through the lens of the camera.

Their unique relationship is further developed through unconventional portraits of their interactions with one another. The photographs reveal a relationship of love, humour, and connection between sisters. Through the many facets of this project, a relationship is played out between my mother and aunt and their struggles with identity as they attempt to explain their place.

As an ongoing body of work, I return to my mother and aunt’s stories, reframing them through collage. I revisit their experiences through my own perspective as a daughter and niece, drawing on family archives, found imagery, and textiles. Through these new collage pieces, I question individuality, visibility, stereotypes, and perception shaped by our intergenerational relationship. This series shares a unique story of the impact of visual culture in the construction of both distant and personal relationships that form identity.

ARTISTS BIO:

Artist Headshot
Image Credit: Rafaela Conde

Hannah Somers is a Tkaronto/Toronto-based artist and curator. Her work centers on the exploration and discovery of time, joy, identity, ethnicity and race, while investigating her own heritage. Understanding the different relationships and histories of these themes is important in her process. She creates narratives within her fine art practice through the use of photography, video, collage, and audio.

Somers received a BFA from Toronto Metropolitan University in Image Arts Photography Studies, and has exhibited solo work at Stephen Bulger Gallery, the Alliance Française Gallery, and most recently at The Image Centre with The Music Sang ‘Lean On Me’ (2023). She has also curated group exhibitions at the Artspace Gallery and Gallery 44.

EVENTS:

Event Title: Artist Talk with Hannah Somers and Farihah Aliyah Shah
Date: October 3, 2026
Time: 11am-12:00pm
Location: Dupont Rail
1444 Dupont St. Unit 10, Toronto, ON
SOCIAL TAGS: 
Hannah Somers
Instagram: @hansom_ers
Website: hlsomersstudio.com

Emilie Croning / EMC Contemporary
Instagram: @emc.contemporary
Website: www.emccontemporary.com