Veerle Poupeye's blog about art in the Caribbean and beyond
The International Reggae Poster Contest, which was launched in 2011, was the brainchild of the Jamaican poster artist and designer Michael Thompson “Freestylee”. His vision was quite specific and went beyond his obvious desire to celebrate the international cultural impact of reggae through a poster competition. He saw it as a platform to promote the... Continue Reading →
Two troubling documents came to my desk recently and, well, they put a few more bees in my bonnet (it's becoming a bit of a hive in there!). One was a promotional article on a concurrent suite of three "Frieze Week" exhibitions of Haitian art in London that appeared in the Telegraph; the other was... Continue Reading →
I have a bee in my bonnet. And I have been writing about it here and there on social media, as those who follow me on Facebook will have noticed. It is about the incestuousness, the cliquishness, and the endemic conflict of interest issues that plague the Caribbean art world. Issues that are, if they... Continue Reading →
My previous post in this series, which can be read here, was aimed at rekindling the critical discussion on Jamaica's art histories. As I argued then, the problematic of Jamaica’s main art historical narrative cannot be addressed by merely identifying and correcting the obvious gaps and oversights, or simply updating it to the present day... Continue Reading →
Jamaica has been on a statue frenzy recently and that is, in itself, a good thing. Late last year there was the unveiling of the Usain Bolt statue at National Stadium and this will soon be followed, I gather, by the statue to Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (we were initially told this would take place some... Continue Reading →
Jamaica's art histories have been on my mind recently, as part of broader considerations about the art histories of the Global Caribbean. Most of the recent art-historical work in and about Jamaica (and the broader Caribbean) has consisted of reflecting on but, ultimately, rehashing what was already done with very little new primary research or... Continue Reading →
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