For the exhibition We live the opposite, dar(l)ing, artist Dianne Davis has fashioned an alternative history for RiverBrink, inserting imaginary characters within an invented historical queer community in Niagara. Working in the media of drawing, photography, and installation, Davis has created fictional characters and relationships which pay homage to queer artists from the past and her current community. The third installment of a series the artist initiated in 2017, the exhibition is intended to disrupt the history of RiverBrink, the former vacation home of London lawyer and collector Samuel E. Weir. In this imagining, the masculine space of the home, now a public art museum, becomes the site of an alternative domestic narrative. The exhibition is rooted in a reimagining and reconstructing of queer legacies from the past, with the goal of supporting dialogue with the present. 

Debra Antoncic PhD,
Director/Curator, RiverBrink Art Museum

Dianne Davis is a Niagara born, Toronto-based visual artist. She has exhibited her photo-based work in solo exhibitions at Harbourfront Centre, Angell Gallery and Cedar Ridge Creative Centre as well as in numerous group shows. Her work, Richmond Park, is on permanent display in Toronto’s Bell Trinity Square. Davis is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, most notably Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council visual arts grants. She holds a BFA in Photography from OCAD University, an MA from Concordia University and an MEng from the University of Toronto .