Refuge Mural Open Call

9 May 2023 Zearier Wilkinson

This fall, the NAGB’s Inter-Island Travelling Exhibition (ITE) will be travelling with the exhibition “Refuge” to the Glory Banks Gallery

From the Collection: John Paul Saddleton’s “West Hill Hidden Garden”

26 August 2019 Natalie Willis

The Daily Escape

By Diana Sands. When the new Permanent Collection Exhibition opened on August 5th, 2019 at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, I was immediately drawn to John Paul Saddleton’s West Hill Hidden Garden painting. Something about it spoke to me in a profound way. As a result, I found myself going back to see it many times since (often when I should have been working). The contrast of the darker hues of the shade against the bright airy light of day in the background continues to tug at my imagination. In truth, it has become a bit like a seductive loadstone.

From the Collection: “Crawfish Lady” (c2000) by Wellington Bridgewater

22 May 2018 admin

By Natalie Willis

What does Bahamian fantasy and myth look like? What magic or horror happens when the divides between animal and human seem to dissolve? What then must Wellington Bridgewater have been thinking when he made the “Crawfish Woman” (c2000) who lies on the Southern steps of the NAGB’s Villa Doyle. Was he thinking that this lobster-lady was like the nefarious lusca, sucking water in and out of blue holes to capture unlucky divers and boats with the power of the oceans. Or was she more like the chickcharney, a generally benign beast who, once wronged, would cause you harm.