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Blank Canvas: Pro Gallery Celebration

15 November 2017 Podcasts

On tonight’s “Blank Canvas,” joining host Amanda Coulson are Allan Jones, an emerging creative and photographer whose exhibition, A Gull’s Eye View, is on view until November 19th at the University of The Bahamas (UB); Suhayla Hepburn, a UB English Major, who will be participating in a Poetry Night as part of the End of Year Show collaboration; Keisha Oliver, UB Assistant Professor, who has been coordinating and promoting the Pro Gallery; and Matthew Rahming, a UB Art Major who has been assisting with installations at the Pro Gallery.

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From the Collection: “A Distant View of Nassau” (c.1857-1904) by Jacob F. Coonley

15 November 2017 Articles

By Natalie Willis.  Looking at this photograph, “distant” is certainly apt in different facets of the word. It is a distant, far off view. It is a distant time, a bygone era. It is also a distant idea to think of Nassau in this way – so largely uninhabited with stretches of green bush for miles, sisal and rocky paths to illustrate this difficult land – formerly difficult for our floral inhabitants, now harder for the people living in what feels like harsh social terrain. The reactions witnessed to this image are very telling, the astonishment on locals faces when they try to imagine a Nassau like this seems like having to tell someone to imagine us in prehistoric times, not just over 200 years ago. That surprise speaks to the way the development has become so utterly integral to our identity in the capital, and truly the country as a whole.

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From Nassau to Long Beach: Bahamian artists participate in “Relational Undercurrents” exhibition at Museum of Latin American Art.

14 November 2017 Network

By Amanda Coulson.For the last decade, the Caribbean has been slowly garnering more and more international attention: “Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art,” (2007; Brooklyn Museum, NY), “Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions” (2011; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C.), and “Caribbean Crossroads of the World,” (2012, The Studio Museum, Museo del Barrio and The Queens Museum, NY) have brought work from the region into the spotlight through broad, collective shows with varying degrees of success.

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Blank Canvas with Marina Reyes Franco

9 November 2017 Podcasts

Joining us on this week’s “Blank Canvas” is curator Marina Reyes Franco from Puerto Rico, who is currently traveling around different nations in the region as this year’s recipient of the 2017 Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) Travel Award for Central America and the Caribbean, a joint effort between the CPPC Travel Award and Independent Curators International (ICI).

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Blank Canvas with Melissa Alcena

1 November 2017 Podcasts

On tonight’s “Blank Canvas,” we re-visit with young Bahamian photographer, Melissa Alcena. Alcena has already made a strong impression on the local art scene, with her involvement in the recent exhibition at the D’Aguilar Art Foundation in the group show “Diversions,” which is on view until November 7th. She now embarks on, “Some (re)assembly required,” her first solo exhibition in The Bahamas at the NAGB’s Project Space, where visitors can get a deeper understanding of her photography practise.

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(Un)Monumental: How Do We Re-contextualise Historic Sculptures for Contemporary Life?

30 October 2017 Articles

As we have seen in “Re: Encounter” artists can often speak to the idea of the monumental both in size and in content. Dede Brown presents ambiguous humanoid busts, absent and cut out of wood and masonite, which are suspended from the ceiling – perhaps un-monumental in their own way. Playing into this in a different respect, Joiri Minaya presents us with a monumental wall of stretchy fabric that spans the width of the ballroom, but also gives us a series of postcards depicting a proposal for artistic intervention on the Christopher Columbus monument that sits at the front of Government House, making good use of both sides of this double-meaning of the word.

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Fabric Printing Workshop brings crowd to NAGB: NAGB Kicks off Fall Programming

26 October 2017 Highlights

By Katrina Cartwright. As a part of The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas’ monthly programming, the “Fabric Printing Workshop” with Joiri Minaya, the first workshop for the fall season, was held on Saturday, October 14th on the Gallery’s grounds. Led by Double Dutch artist Joiri Minaya, a diverse group of 19 participants were introduced to the basics of block printing then invited to try out their designs on fabric.

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Blank Canvas with David Gumbs

25 October 2017 Podcasts

Joining Amanda in the “Blank Canvas” studio this week is a new media artist, David Gumbs, who was born in Saint Martin and, since 2009, has been teaching multimedia, trans-media and motion design at the Visual Arts School in Fort-de-France, Martinique.

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The Domestic Not-So-Tourist: Marina Reyes Franco visits The Bahamas as recipient of the CPPC Travel Award

25 October 2017 Network

By Natalie Willis. The aftermath of this historic hurricane season has thrown the inter-relations of countries in the Caribbean, and the attitudes around it all, into much clearer focus. The growing regional engagement over the years hasn’t just involved development or relief efforts, but we have also seen a rise in intra-Caribbean art and cultural research and projects – which is very exciting indeed and adds some levity to this difficult period we are all going through together. Balancing both of these realities – of arts development and relief efforts – in her mind, is curator Marina Reyes Franco from Puerto Rico, who is currently travelling around different nations in the region as this year’s recipient of the 2017 Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) Travel Award for Central America and the Caribbean, a joint effort between the CPPC Travel Award and Independent Curators International (ICI)

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