Exhibitions
The museum offers a unique look at Bahamian history and culture through the art of its people. The ground floor hosts the museum’s permanent exhibits, while the upstairs has a pair of temporary exhibit spaces that change regularly.
These exhibitions usually take on a physical life within the walls of the NAGB, and are up for display for approximately 12 months on the ground floor of the museum, giving you, the public, a chance to see the works that we all own as people of The Bahamas.
“The Nation/The Imaginary”, explores juxtapositions of myth/reality, paradise/plantation, and the importance of the imagination in transcending colonial ideation. As artists bear witness to our political coming-of-age, they craft stories that challenge power and help guide us towards self-knowledge. With over 500 pieces, the collection is only a snapshot of this story/making – which is a great place to start to imagine.
The History of the NAGB compiles and showcases the NAGB’s history from its start as a stately residence to its present-day status as the premier national art institution in The Bahamas. Explore the rich history, influential people, and pioneering exhibitions that placed the museum at the center of Bahamian art and culture.
The History of the NAGB compiles and showcases the NAGB’s history from its start as a stately residence to its present-day status as the premier national art institution in The Bahamas. Explore the rich history, influential people, and pioneering exhibitions that placed the museum at the center of Bahamian art and culture.
The NAGB is thrilled to announce the opening of the new ITE “Thirty: Island Life Perspectives”. The exhibition is named for the thirty inhabited islands of our archipelago of 700 islands and cays and celebrates our similarities while recognizing those things that create the juxtapositions between Family Island life and city life.
This year, campers explored the art and history of storytelling in The Bahamas and across the Caribbean diaspora under the theme “Ol’ Story: Folktales and Traditions”. The rich and vibrant history of teaching and entertaining with the spoken word is deeply entrenched in our culture.
The NAGB is thrilled to announce that Kendra Frorup’s Mid-Career Show, “The Whimsical Collector”, will engage viewers with a body of work that spans a robust practice from 1989- present with a new collaborative installation, that the artist is engaging with the Bahamian community, opens on March 24th, 2022.
The Permanent Exhibition (PE) at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) is an annual exhibition focused on displaying the National Collection and, at times, supported by works from prominent private collections including, but not limited to, the D’Aguilar Art Foundation Collection, The Dawn Davies Collection and other private collections.
Averia Wright presents “Straw Paradox: The Pig that Built His House of Straw” in the NAGB Project Space her following her moving works for the National Exhibition 9 “The Fruit and The Seed”, “Elevating the Blue Light Special.” Drawing from tradition and her family’s history, Wright will explore the legacy of straw works and its relationship to the Bahamian tourism industry.
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas invites you to the exhibition opening reception and awards ceremony for our Mixed Media Art Summer Camp on Thursday, August 1st, 2019, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. We begin in Fiona’s Theatre then move to the Project Space Room where the exhibit will be on display.
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas is proud to present a collection of new paintings by interdisciplinary artist Tessa Whitehead. Her first solo exhibition in The Bahamas titled “…there are always two deaths” catalogues the artist’s observations of the landscape, everyday life, and the inner working of nature in conjunction with the sacred feminine.
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas brings to life a collection of over 110 works from the master Bahamian artist, Chan Pratt. We celebrate Pratt’s life and creativity posthumously in “Resurrection.” Working closely with Dewitt Chan Pratt, Chan’s son along with 20+ collectors across the archipelago we bring to life his story and ruminations on the landscape and honour the legacy of works left for study and record.
There are times when the dead send for us—at times they call to us in hushed tones, and at other times their screams are peppered with urgency. Sometime they come to us in the recognition of a familiar cadence whose origin we cannot quite recall or the eerie familiarity of a place on first arrival.
Avid Junkanoo practitioner, Carlos Bain, lights up the Project Space (PS) room for the month of December with a refreshing take on the traditional elements of the annual festival. Using crepe paper, bright colours, organic shapes and the congregation and crowds in the festivities, Bain advances and broadens the representations around Junkanoo and the connectivity of the spirit of communing together.
Lavar Munroe’s second chapter and continuing installation accompanying “Son of the Soil”, the artist’s 10-year survey is set to open on Thursday, November 1st, 2019 with a newly conceived installation of his 2016 – present project “Memorials” called “Return: The Magic Flight.”
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) is proud to premiere it’s second inter-island travelling exhibition, Trans: A Migration of Identity in Andros! A week of exciting activities is planned, where the entire community – young and old – will be engaged in the creation and appreciation of Bahamian art.
The “Double Dutch” series supports the concept of bringing together local and regional artists, irrespective of where they are currently resdiding, to work with a group of ideas personal, political and otherwise crucial to the development of a contemporary Bahamian identity.
This year campers went “Back to da Island” as we explored indigenous Bahamian crafts like straw work, basket weaving, shellcraft, wood carving and much more, in traditional and not so traditional ways, all while learning the stories from and the histories of the islands where these different crafts originated.
On Tuesday, July 3rd, the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas will showcase a collection of works for the first time by established and seasoned woodturner, Robin Hardy. The exhibition will include approximately 15 pieces that move between functional, practical and aesthetic objects including his infamous bowls.
In collaboration with the British Council, the NAGB will present the exhibition “We Suffer to Remain” featuring the evocative video installation “The Slave’s Lament” by Scottish artist, Graham Fagen in tandem with visual responses by Bahamian artists Sonia Farmer, Anina Major and John Beadle.
On March 22nd through July 29th, The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas presents the first of two historical surveys exhibitions that include works produced from 1856-1960 by visiting artists and expatriates, who were inspired by the then-colony’s landscapes, people, luminescence, coastlines and seas and bustling lifestyles.
How exactly does depression feel? What occupies one’s thoughts? How does one reconcile the demands and reality of daily life with the mind being in a constant emotional ebb and flow? In “A Self Portrait” emerging Bahamian artist, Drew Weech, aims to provide – through both painting and sculpture – a window into what it’s like to struggle with depression by presenting a body of work which vacillates between both the ephemeral and the perpetual aspects of the disorder.
Frances “Peggy” Jones has been expressing herself with acrylic paints since 1967, when she emigrated to The Bahamas and became comfortable with painting as an amateur artist. Without any formal instruction or classes, she became acquainted with the medium by convening with other women in Nassau who shared similar interests. They frequently met to share information on their passions, preoccupations and affections.
To many the Bahama Islands, which spread southeastward from the east coast of Florida, symbolize enjoyment- a place to unwind and experience “sun and fun”. As a result, it is not uncommon for tourists to actually forget that these small bits of land are indeed their own distinct country; one, though populated by a people whose history has been greatly affected by proximity to America, is quite unlike it.
Empathy keeps the horse from becoming a sacrificial capital object. This is a gesture to preserve the sacred. We must not break the skin of the animal. Though I can surrender to the illusion of my own death as a gift. We see our humanity in animals and in return they heal us.
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB), in collaboration with the Bahamas Tourism Board and the French Arts Factory, is proud to present the exhibition “Baham’Art en Seine” featuring six prominent Bahamian artists including Chantal Bethel, Stan Burnside, Claudette Dean, Thierry Lamare, Toby Lunn and Max Taylor, on view at the French Art Factory from December 11th – 17th, 2017.
The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas is proud to welcome and continue our ongoing partnership with the University of The Bahamas Art Programme. Under the guidance of Associate Professor and artist Heino Schmid, the selection this year welcomes two emerging Long-Island artists and budding educators, Blake Fox and Shanteena Simms.
Painter and transplant Thierry Lamare has called The Bahamas his home for almost thirty years. Over that period, he has become a keen observer of the Bahamian landscape, its people, customs, and traditions, some of which are slowly fading, others shifting quickly like the dying light which he captures so evocatively.
Canadian-born, Nassau-based artist of twenty-five years, K Smith attributes his skill and artistic aptitude to the fact that his talent is generational. Passed on through generations, this ancestral understanding of creativity, attention to detail and innate skill has led him over the course of his 40-year practice, to create some of the most technical hyper-realistic images in graphite and colour pencil in the Bahamas.
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) will host an exhibition displaying the results of a three year collaboration among the Government of The Bahamas, the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) and Harvard University Graduate School of Design. The research project was formed to facilitate the design and management of a more sustainable future for Exuma, and The Bahamas more generally.
Figuration deals with interpretations of bodies and figures in space. Abstraction as a concept holds no concern in reproducing reality. Ironic then, when each of these seemingly disparate ideas and styles are paired with both painting and photography in relation to their respective difficult and warring histories as documentative mediums.
EN MAS’: Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean explores the influences of Carnival on performance art in the Caribbean, North America, and Europe and considers the connections between masquerade and political criticism, spectacularity and social invisibility, and public space and national citizenship.
Inspired by the iconic story that we came to know during our formative years, Pratt takes us on a sprawling look at the largeness of the birth of the universe and humanity. Using colour fields splattered with dark rich hues, he manages to evoke the expansive and transcendent nature of energies and life.
“From Columbus to Junkanoo” highlights the growth and divergence of Bahamian art beyond last century. We hope the showcase will challenge perspectives and assumptions and present a comprehensive representation of the different elements of the Bahamian story internally and with the world at large.
On the grounds of the NAGB, artist and entrepreneur Candis Marshall has created a spiritual and intoxicating environment for viewers to rest, recover and intervene with during the opening weekend of Transforming Spaces. Marshall’s “A Garden of Dreams” incorporates a garden of dream catchers that encircle a medicine wheel.
Double Dutch brings together artists from the region to produce provocative bodies of work through collaboration and exchange. The first project of its kind sanctioned by the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, the project works against ideas of nationalism and the insularity of our creative environs by creating a safe space to explore regional culture and our creative acumen and sensibilities.
Starting with the extraordinarily talented Eddie Minnis, who was trained as an architect at McGill University (graduating with a BSc. in 1971) but is actually a self-taught painter, the exhibition will show his masterworks from the very early college years up to today and will also highlight the major works of both his daughters — Nicole Minnis Ferguson and Rosheanne Minnis Eyma — as well as his son-in-law, Ritchie Eyma.
On January 4th, 2014, At the age of 72, Mr. Winston “Gus” Cooper, one of the founders of The Valley Boys Junkanoo group, passed away at Princess Margaret Hospital. On April 15th, 2014, The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas opens a tribute show entitled, “The Ace of Spades – The Father of Modern Day Junkanoo,” curated by the well-known Bahamian artist, Mr. John Beadle
The NAGB was pleased to present “Swan Song of the Flamingo”, a collaborative project that marries Kishan Munroe’s visual artistry with the work of other Bahamian and Cuban artists from various disciplines to create a boundary shattering program that shines a spotlight on painful period in Bahamian history: the sinking of HMBS Flamingo of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force fleet on May 10, 1980.
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“I am endlessly fascinated by how a work of art ingeniously archives our national identity. It preserves a piece of Bahamian history in perpetuity!”
— Lawrence Bascom, Former NAGB Chair
Visit
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas occupies the historic Villa Doyle, a colonial-era home from 1860, at the corner of West Hill and West Hill Streets, Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas.
Explore
Introduce yourself to the colourful visual culture of The Bahamas at one of the largest collections of Bahamian art in the world.
Learn
The NAGB also has an extensive public program schedule, community and regional projects and partnerships, arts education workshops and a free public art library.
Connect
With a sizable art collection and regular exhibitions, the museum provides art and artists from around the country with a definitive place of refuge.