Currently browsing: Uncategorized

Tessa Whitehead’s NAGB Exhibition shared in Cacique International’s Artists In the Spotlight series: “With a distinctive taste for landscapes, particularly those of the islands, Tessa’s latest work powerfully captures her empirical conception of the complexities of Caribbean life. Tessa’s distinguished collection tellingly titled, “…there are always two deaths”, a line borrowed from ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’, is an expressive portrayal of loss and lamenting. Tessa’s work touches on many bold themes including matriarchal identification, alienation and marriage. Her artistic exploration of an intrinsic relationship existing between women and nature is felt deeply. The lush, tropical island backdrop seems like an idyllic landscape for healing; however, with hints of agonizing irony, these tropical inlets are entrenched in a turbulent history which proves a difficult place to search for the warmth of understanding.”

By Letitia Pratt, The D’Aguilar Art Foundation. On a late Monday at the end of May, I sluggishly – by fault of a sleepless travel day –  made my way through the airport arrivals in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, unaware of the new ways in which experiencing Tilting Axis 5 (TA5) would change my perspective on many things – on art, the institution, and on my own practice; and how, despite all the harrowing setbacks that I have endured, that it is important to do work in and about the Caribbean.   

By Kevanté Cash, NAGB Correspondent. Rashad Leamount and Chase Fernander curate the first of many soul sessions to be held at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas. Bodies sway, hands raised and heads bop from left to right; feet resist the urge to get up and shake, while mouths formulate to ad lib the words to songs hearts may know. There is magic in the air at Fiona’s Theatre, where an eclectic group of musical artists are performing. They are setting the mood for what to make of the rest of the year with events held here, as this appears to be the start of something new. “Unplugged” a part of A Season at Fiona’s, curated by Rashad Leamount and Chase Fernander, marries the two art worlds, inviting one into its backyard.

Bahamian photographer and writer Ethan Knowles shares his first blog post about his Fresh Milk residency in Barbados. His first week has been spent familiarizing himself with Barbados and embarking on research into Caribbean identity, the archetypes/stereotypes associated with it, and how we see ourselves and shape our own identities from within the region.

University of The Bahamas (UB) and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) have solidified an agreement that will facilitate academic and cultural interchange in arts education, research and collaboration, thereby strengthening the relationship between the two national institutions.

By Katrina Cartwright. The Inter-Island Travelling Exhibition brings an intense week of activities to the second city. On April 2nd, 2019 the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas’ Inter-Island Travelling Exhibition (ITE) lands in Freeport, Grand Bahama, bringing with it an extensive community outreach agenda inclusive of our public mural programme, free workshops, a curator’s talk, school visits (primary and secondary) and donations of museum literature for art teachers, schools and public libraries. The NAGB was last in Grand Bahama in 2016 with “Max/Amos”, which was showcased at the Charles Hayward Library. Now in its fourth year, with a new exhibition, “Trans: A Migration of Identity”, the NAGB team is taking the travelling exhibition to our second city, where it will be on display at the Rand Nature Centre from April 5th – 26th, 2019.  

We’re excited to welcome you to the Unveiling Ceremony for Dream Wall of Respect on Saturday, March 30th 2019 from 11am at Lend a Hand Bahamas on Lewis Street, Nassau, Bahamas. In September 2018, Transforming Spaces (TS) established a partnership with Lend a Hand Bahamas (LAHB), a registered nonprofit organization formed in 2014 to bring local, national, and international opportunities and activities into the community by running a core hands-on curriculum centered on 4H programming. 
TS, under the leadership of Bahamian master artist Antonius Roberts, integrated art and culture into the LAHB programme and invited artists to create murals along the Wall of Respect  that was initiated in 2014 by community resident and Junkanoo artist, the late Deon McHardy, aka ‘Slime’ whose artwork remains as drawn in his memory. 

By Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett, The University of The Bahamas. The art of expression is as much a part of culture as is the art of weaving or straw work, yet we often overlook this.  When someone says, “I ga beat you into next week,” the local colour is present, but the violent subtext is usually edited out. In Jamaican novelist, dramatist, critic, philosopher, and essayist Sylvia Wynter’s work “We must learn to sit down together and talk about a little culture” (Jamaica Journal, 1968) we see the commodification of art and culture.  Yet, we have apparently progressed to the post-independence point where most pre-independence problems are ignored or cured by the shift.  But the exploration of sitting down together demonstrates that we have not moved beyond the problems nor have they disappeared. Violence and violent dispossession remain realities, often ignored.