Last night, the Art Gallery of the Central Bank of The Bahamas opened a new solo exhibition entitled “Passion of a Lifetime” with paintings by Bahamian artist Wendall Jones, a well known career journalist and media personality, with over 40 years in the information industry. He established and expanded the Jones Communications Network, including JCN Television, Love 97 Radio, The Bahama Journal and JCN Person of the Year Awards.

What is less known about Jones is that over the course of almost two decades, he has produced an impressive body of work consisting of – with only a few exceptions — an exceptional series of abstract variations.

With meticulous, multilayered brushstrokes, the artist has created fragile tapestries of colour and light; somewhere located between Pointillism and abstract expressionistic influences.

There are obviously countless ways to experience and interpret the world around us, myriad ways to feel, express and communicate. In his paintings, Jones chooses to deconstruct our figurative visible world and looking for an ephemeral common denominator. This body of work is even more remarkable when we note that the artist did not receive any formal training in painting and is entirely self-taught.

Jack Bell Gallery of London is proud to present Bahamian artist Lavar Munroe at this year’s Armory Show in New York that opened this week. Munroe is one of 12 artists the Gallery represents.

Munroe’s work is considered a “highlight of the show” according to leading contemporary art magazine Hyperallergic. “Highlights include Lavar Munroe’s phantasmic, multilayered canvases, from the artist’s Redbones series, on view in Jack Bell’s booth (and also in the Jenkins Johnson booth at Pier 94). Composed of layers of cut canvas, Munroe’s surreal, brightly hued paintings draw on his interests in anthropology and critiques of mythology and hero narratives.”

Bahamian artist in solo show in California

Fullerton College is honored to present Bahamian artist April Bey as their 2020 Artist-in-Residence.

Bey, who grew up in Nassau and is now based in Los Angeles, is best known for her mixed media and process-based work. Bey’s interdisciplinary artwork is an introspective and social critique of American and Bahamian culture, contemporary pop culture feminism, generational theory, social media, AfroFuturism, and constructs of race.

She has an academic background in drawing and painting (BFA Ball State University and MFA California State University, Northridge). Bey is in the permanent collection of The California African American Museum, The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas and The Current, Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas.

Bey travels extensively for her work — mostly to West Africa. She is both a practicing contemporary artist and art educator having taught a controversial course at Art Center College of Design called Pretty Hurts analyzing process-based art and Beyoncé Social Media Feminism. Bey is currently a tenured professor of Art at Glendale College.

The exhibition in the Fullerton College Art Gallery entitled Welcome to Atlantica will be accompanied by an artist lecture and a week-long series of demonstrations as part of the distinguished Fullerton College Artist-in-Residence programme.

CLICK HERE for April Bey’s website.

The Clapboard House

A disappearing relic within the Bahamian landscape.

by Keisha Oliver

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma’s devastation, as the Caribbean recovers and rebuilds, it would be remiss not to pause and reflect. In moving forward, there is much to be considered from our survival and journey as an island people. Our social and physical landscapes have and will continue to weave the rich cultural fabric of our existence once we continue to value and preserve them.

Following the most powerful storm seen in the Caribbean, desecrating islands and leaving many homeless, much debate concerning our built environments has emerged. Largely influenced by environmental factors, Caribbean architecture, dating back to the Lucayans, has responded pragmatically to geography and climate considerations. Even when modelling after the early European trends, which often proved less appropriate to the tropics our structures have still withstood hurricane and storms for decades.

According to Bahamian Architect and Partner at TDG Architects Marcus Laing, “Building codes and standards in The Bahamas ensure that structures are designed to take wind speeds of at 150mph. The house I grew up in Englerston was a modest two-bedroom home that survived many hurricanes because it was built up two feet from the ground and followed this building code. In fact, clapboard or wood framed house could be just as strong as a concrete block structure. It’s just a matter of the quality and frequency of wood used.” [...]

CLICK HERE for full text at the NAGB website.

Bahamas honors Chef Jose Andrés with portrait by Bahamian artist

by Miami Times Staff

The Islands of The Bahamas used the international stage of the recent Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival to say thank you to Chef José Andrés. The chef and his World Central Kitchen team were responsible for providing some 3.2 million meals to victims of Hurricane Dorian, which struck the island nation in September 2019 and caused massive destruction and devastation to Great Abaco and Grand Bahama.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation presented the humanitarian with a portrait of himself by Bahamian artist, Jamaal Rolle, at the SOBEWFF event, Feeding the World hosted by Andrés.

“Our country is forever in your debt for your limitless love, kindness, thoughtfulness and support demonstrated in the massive outreach you organized to feed thousands affected by the storm,” the Ministry’s Executive Director of Marketing Bridgette King, said while presenting the gift to Andrés. [...]

CLICK HERE for full article in The Miami Times.

by Natascha Vazquez

For this year’s Transforming Spaces, The Current Gallery & Art Center is pleased to announce the opening of “The Red Room”, an exhibition of new works by Jodi Minnis.

This body of work showcases an installation of bedroom scenes, landscapes and self-portraits, exploring both the intimacies and vastness of public and private spaces. They offer insight into often unpublished places, where there is an opportunity for contemplation and self-reflection. There is a kind of duality within the work, where light from outside a window meets a dark bedroom, where both suffering and healing are evident, and where a sense of both quiet and chaos meet.

Minnis references the balance between the exposed and the isolated through her completion of a three-month residency at The Current, a space that is accessible to thousands of hotel guests and other visitors of Baha Mar. By taking her practice out of isolation and into a heavily populated space, Minnis explores the theme of her work through the process of making. Through this practice, her studio space becomes somewhat of a “window display”, visible to hundreds of onlookers.

“The Red Room” will include a performance by Minnis that aims to expose the unseen spaces behind each closed hotel room door. According to Minnis, “I often contemplate the multiple ways I can exist in this space, as an artist, an employee, a guest or a visitor, and I believe that this contemplation manifests in the work.”

“The Red Room” will be on display until April 2, 2020.

Courtesy of The Nassau Guardian.

by Ginger Danto

With the exception of national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and conservation-minded communities fighting for the sake of still pristine lands, much of Florida has given way to development in tandem with exponential population growth. While similar scenarios play out across the country, the dynamic is arguably most dire in the Sunshine State, where—according to certain measures—900 people relocate a day, notably from northern cities. The resulting demand for non-stop building has taxed the fragile soil bed while also threatening the habitat of hundreds of animal species that have long claimed the state as their home.

While contemporary photographers and writers have found inspiration in the fleeting specter of wild Florida, little has been known until recently about a group of regional painters who captured the state’s changing landscape during the 1950s and ’60s. Aware of the beauty of their surroundings, these artists worked prolifically—yet went largely unknown, primarily because they were African-Americans working in the segregated South. This is the case no longer, however, thanks to “Living Color: The Art of the Highwaymen,” an exhibition on view at the Orlando Museum of Art (through May 10) that surveys their tremendous output. [...]

CLICK HERE for full article at Art News.
CLICK HERE for exhibition page.

by Shantay Robinson

Black men make a distinct contribution to the artworld as they create art that speaks to a diverse range of issues from community to commerce. Their standpoint comes from a historical experience belonging to a race that has generationally been terrorized and oppressed. For this list of the 10 Breakthrough Black Men Artists, we spoke to professionals at black-owned art galleries to find out which artists they felt were making major gains by their presence in collections, showing in museums and gallery spaces through exhibitions, and raising the bar by the ingenuity of their work. From recommendation of gallerists at Stella Jones Gallery, N’Namdi Contemporary, Walton Gallery, Mariane Ibrahim, E&S Gallery, 10th Street Gallery, Richard Beavers, Zucot Gallery and Black Art in America, we compiled this list.

Alfred Conteh
Alfred Conteh’s Two Fronts, works to convey the warlike atmosphere under which black men, women, and children exist. The likeness to camouflage that overlays the portraits of everyday people is not rendered accidentally. As black life is in a constant struggle to survive, Conteh recognizes the material circumstance under which black people battle economic and psychological injustice. Alfred Conteh’s portraits feature people he has encountered on the street and in whom he recognizes a uniqueness. [...]

CLICK HERE for full article in Black Art in America.