Remembering our past – navigating our shadowy future. Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett explores the commonalities of post-colonial countries in last Saturday’s “Arts and Culture.”
Living in the Shadows of Empire: Territories of Dark and Light
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Max/Amos Bids Farewell in Exuma: The masters take a bow
By Katrina Cartwright. After a two-year journey that took this iconic exhibition to three islands – Grand Bahama, Eleuthera and Abaco- it is only fitting that the Max/Amos traveling exhibition bids us farewell in Exuma, the hometown of Bahamian folk and master artist, Amos Ferguson.
Blank Canvas with Melissa Alcena, Sofia Whitehead, and Tessa Whitehead
Joining host, Amanda Coulson, on The Blank Canvas tonight are Tessa Whitehead, curator of the upcoming show at The D’Aguilar Art Foundation, entitled “Diversions” and participating artists Melissa Alcena and Sofia Whitehead.
From the Collection: “Woman With Flamingoes” (1996-97) by R. Brent Malone
By Natalie Willis
It is time to revisit an old favourite with the detail and context it truly deserves. A cross-hatch of brushstrokes, full of the looseness, movement and vibrancy associated with R. Brent Malone’s work, gives way to the key figures from which this piece in the National Collection gets its title. “Woman With Flamingoes” (1996-97), a gift to the Collection donated in memory of Jean Cookson, depicts a flamboyance of flamingoes with a woman staring beyond the frame. Though the flamingoes are bustling and full of movement, she is purposefully still. Malone renders her the focus of the work amidst a pink and crimson cacophony of tropical birds.
The Culture of Space: Places for Art
By : Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett
The post office stands at the top of Parliament Street on East Hill street, a monument to 1970s development. It stands now condemned. The Churchill building stands condemned, much like the Rodney Bain Building on the verge of Parliament Street Hill on the way to the post office. Condemned buildings populate the city of Nassau. The shift has been rapid; from a thriving colonial backwater settled by administrators and Loyalists to a post-colonial shadow of colonial rule, to a derelict city of decay. This shift has been enormous.
Generational Inheritance: Art institutions shape family and community and nation
Art is considered by many to be one of the most critical subjects in the development of a young mind. It informs the way one processes math and science. It alters and expands the manner in which individuals seek solutions to complex problems. Understanding the way the world works, in both literal and figurative terms, is enhanced by consistent exposure to the arts.
Blank Canvas with Lavar Munroe
On this week’s “Blank Canvas,” Amanda is visited in the studio by Bahamian artist Lavar Munroe.
Born and raised in Grant’s Town, Munroe has been moving from strength-to-strength on the global stage and is well-known in international art circles, having participated in the prestigious Venice Biennale, as well as having had museum and gallery shows. He studied at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) and completed a Masters at Washington University in St. Louis in 2013. Since then he has had a studio practice based largely in the United States.
From the Collection: “On the Way to Market” (ca. 1877-78) by Jacob F. Coonley
“On the Way to Market” (ca. 1877-78) by Jacob Frank Coonley looks to be a work in progress, an experiment, with boxes in the foreground and a window decidedly within the frame of the shot.
Blank Canvas: Mixed Media Summer Art Camp Recap
On today’s Blank Canvas, guest host Malika Pryor-Martin, Communications & Development Officer at the NAGB, is joined by fellow colleague and Education Officer Katrina Cartwright and artist Jodi Minnis. They discuss the NAGB’s Mixed Media Summer Art Camp (MMSAC), the value of art in education and what the NAGB is doing to broaden access to art and encourage art appreciation in The Bahamas.
What’s in the frame: Tourism, art, installation and rebuilding the old whore of a body
By Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett. Frames capture or remove things, images, objects, people for or from the public eye. The frame of the photo can bring something into sharp focus, or it can reduce that same thing into an abstraction in the fore or background and highlight something else. One image usually metaphorically represents an entire discourse and political, economic and socio-cultural paradigm, a way of thinking about enslaved bodies and their relation to consumer politics, that is to say, discourses of otherness and sexualisation.