Our culture, as long as we wish it to be, is alive in those feet that pound the streets because they do not have cars, in the rubber that heads north every morning and south every night to earn money to survive. The fear of suffering is as strong as the possibility of death by silence, though silence kills like cancer that eats away at our fibre and when we are asked, who do we think we are? What dare we answer?
This Wednesday’s “Blank Canvas” sees the beginning of a series of shows focussing on the participating artists in the new National Exhibition NE8, opening this Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. at Villa Doyle (NAGB) and Hillside House on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. The Eighth National Exhibition is an exhibition featuring the works of over 60 artists, facilitators, and poets, who were asked to create work that addressed their current thoughts and discourse as citizens of The Bahamas and the world
The team at The National ArtGallery of The Bahamas is thrilled to share installation and in progress shots from the upcoming National Exhibition 8 (NE8) set to open on Thursday, December 15th at the NAGB and on Saturday, December 17th at Hillside House our OFFsite for this year’s rendition.
Representation in art tends to be the ability of art to reflect on to capture the trueness of life. It is not a sketch of naturalistic or impressionistic images, but a ‘true’ to life picture of what we see. However, what we see can always be influenced, changed or distorted by our position, our vantage point, and bias or where we stand. We can look out at sea and see a glare of whiteness as the sun reflects off the water’s surface.
Visiting The Bahamas from the U.S is Stephanie Smith, the recently-appointed Chief Curator at the brand new Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, which will open in October 2017. She joins host Amanda Coulson on this week’s The Blank Canvas.
Recent events in the nation, perhaps most notably the We March protest that took place last week, showed that The Bahamas has begun to shake off the veil of apathy that we have slumbered under for what feels like too long. This year has been a belter for politics and people of all beliefs making their feelings known – for better or for worse. And, as art so often engages with the state of society, so it is that many of the submissions for the 8th National Exhibition (NE8) at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) were brash, bold, opinionated, and deeply political; reflecting how strongly so many of us feel after the various events of 2016.
We are so happy to be supporting the first Researcher In Residence for the National Exhibition and partnering with Hillside House to make it happen. Hilary Booker’s installation, “The Moonflower Room,” combines the intellectual and creative lineage from which she developed her theoretical framework with research findings of interview participants’ hopes and dreams for the future.
The painting workshop series at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB), starting today, November 26, is just another side of our range of programming here. We have talks and openings and all the things often associated with a National Gallery, but we also offer more practical, tangible knowledge that we pass on and other learning opportunities and experiences that we expose our local public to.
How much more value can we get out of tourism by really investing in Nassau and promoting small businesses like walking tours, garden cafes, and tea shops along with waterside bars? The longer we take to change the model of rot, the harder it is and the worse the actual situation gets. Why travel to downtown Paradise to see decay? Is it not better to remain locked in a resort or on a ship?
The recent honour given to National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) staff in recognition of efforts and achievements, provide a moment of deeper thought on what this success means on a larger scale. Division is, in many ways, the trend for 2016 – the year that has B.I.G. level notoriety for just about everything going wrong.