Hazelle Palmer: Seeing Women

Hazelle Palmer, Mixed Identities, 2023, paper collage, acrylic, charcoal, stencil on wood panel, 36″ x 36″

Hazelle Palmer: Seeing Women
Solo Exhibition

Curated by James Turner. A 2gallery pop-up.

On Now Until October 22, 2025
Akasha Art Projects, Toronto

Hazelle Palmer is an observer. Of people, places, memories and moments.

In her current solo exhibition, Hazelle casts her gaze towards the feminine. Women both known and unknown to her. Each embodies a spirit, attitude or emotion that is somehow singular to that individual – while universally recognized by each of us.

Seeing Women – shows the artist capturing and portraying women in their own specific time and place, from her unique and often humorous perspective. Seeing Women – asks the viewer to look at these women through their own lens. Could that be me? Is that my memory of a similar moment? Seeing Women – also celebrates the power of the feminine. The sirens, the furies, the goddesses and the seers. Strong women able to see the impact of the past, this present moment and the future waiting ahead.

Since 2020, Hazelle Palmer has deepened her exploration of a unique materiality, combining patterned paper, acrylic paint, stencilling and hand-drawing with pencil and charcoal. The results are immediately recognizable as hers alone.

Images (left to right): Hazelle Palmer, What Lies Ahead, 2025, paper collage, acrylic, on wood panel, 24″ x 48″. Hazelle Palmer, The Swan, 2023, paper collage, acrylic, charcoal, wood pellets on wood panel, 18″ x 36″.

Hazelle Palmer is drawn to a dynamic palette of rich, rustic tones that evoke the colours and memories of her childhood experiences in the 1970s and celebrate the tropical hues often associated with her Caribbean heritage. Fascinated by the ways in which she can add depth to her work, she explores how colour is used to define identity and how the use of texture and patterns bring those identities to life and captures moments defined by her experiences. Her work is always evolving from the abstract to collage to figurative depictions but central is an element of perfect imperfection – often visible in how she blends colour, layers paper in collages, or the sometimes-awkward positions of the figures in her work to suggest the challenges we all face fitting in.

Hazelle Palmer, The Party, 2024, paper collage, acrylic, on wood panel, 40″ x 40″

Hazelle Palmer is a Toronto-based artist whose work embodies the diversity of her lived experiences. Hazelle has been an artist for over 30 years and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications. Her work has appeared on the covers of publications including Tales from the Gardens and Beyond and Eyeing the North Star. Her work is held in numerous private collections.

For additional work by Hazelle Palmer, please visit www.hazellepalmerart.com.

Contact
James Turner, 2gallery
jim@2gallery.ca

Akasha Art Projects
204D Carlton Street
Toronto, ON M5A 2L1
akashaart.com