‘Tis the Season and for our New Year’s show we are talking about … JUNKANOO! Not about what we all just saw on Bay, but rather the art behind the festival.
Blank Canvas with Carlos Bain and Jay Koment
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Utopian Ecologies: Alex Timchula’s microcosmic garden sculpture for the NE9
By Natalie Willis. The 9th National Exhibition, “NE9: The Fruit and the Seed”, opened on December 13th, 2018, and the reception was quite honestly overwhelming in the abundance of bodies, spirits and minds present. As we approach this penultimate exhibition on the way to the 10th National Exhibition, this particular biennial’s harvest has been ripe with unabashed representations of self, social critique, and calls for action – all of which bear hopeful tidings for its next, landmark iteration of this key survey in checking the pulse of art in The Bahamas. Part garden, part spaceship, part act of love and care, Alex Timchula’s contribution to the NE9 is a living, growing representation of a utopian dream.
Speaking to views and gazes in the work of Eric Rose: Education, Space and Knowing your Place
By Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett, University of The Bahamas.
My eyes may be dim, but I can see
Though sight be mitigated by supervision,
My view is my experience
I shall not be moved
Art provides an interior image of exteriorised feelings that are usually not openly discussed. The interior/exterior reality of images and experiences is often surreal as it collapses spaces into times that are not always compatible. Art allows whimsical flights of fantasy and fancy, which break down barriers and create potential changes that defy limitations. Photography, at the same time, opens eyes to what is often overlooked, while also capturing an image of something in a unique way that renders it more or less than it is.
Returning the Gaze: Melissa Alcena in NE9
By Kevanté A. C. Cash. Melissa Alcena’s work is not for the faint of heart. It is not for those of whom dismiss the work of introspection. It causes a discomfort in self; challenges interior and personal spaces and the world around it, especially if that self exists as a Black body traversing through a “post-colonial” society. As one of the 38 artists supported by the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) in the Ninth National Exhibition (NE9), “The Fruit and The Seed” Alcena’s work delivered nothing short of expectation. Her interpretation of the exhibition’s thematic manifested as works seeking to return the gaze and dispel the notion of “othering”, because truly, what is a “them”? What is a “they” if we are all experiencing the same aftermath outside of British colonial ruling? “Is the island not 21 x 7 miles even though the archipelago far flung? Why do we act as if we are so far apart?” With her biting and intimate suite of images, Alcena poses these questions.
Seeing the God in me: Jalan Harris’s “Self-Pollinate” and Cydne Coleby’s “A God Called Self” works
by Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett Creative practice often opens the earthly self to infinite power of divine intervention. It is also
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Field Notes on Planting Seeds in Uprooted Gardens
Tiffany Smith’s Hypertropical Critique of the Otherness, Womanhood, and the Caribbean Image by Natalie Willis Lush greenery and deep, verdant
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Everybody is hoping for something
Angelika Wallace-Whitfield talks NE9 public project ‘Hope Is a Weapon’ by Kevanté Cash, NAGB Correspondent. “Hope is an optimistic attitude,
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NE9 Talks and Thoughts: Artists share their thoughts on the NE9
By Katrina Cartwright. The opening of the NAGB’s “NE9: The Fruit and The Seed” was so dynamic, well supported and memorable, we invited the participating artists to share their experiences and thoughts on that evening and also on this National Exhibition (NE) in general. Here are the amazing, generous responses we received from several of these incredibly talented individuals!
Blank Canvas: December 19, 2018, NE9 Artists
On Blank Canvas this week we continue a discussion around the ninth National Exhibition, “NE9: The Fruit & The Seed,” with three artists in the studio. April Bey (far right), Melissa Alcena (second from right) and Tiffany Smith (second from left) have all produced very different work—from Bey’s multimedia hand-stitched canvases, to Alcena’s portrait photographs, to Smiths’ installation—but it is all connected to ideas of identity and belonging.
NAGB opens National Exhibition 9 (NE9) to wild acclaim
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas’ (NAGB) National Exhibition 9 (NE9) “The Fruit and The Seed” opened on Thursday,
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