Veerle Poupeye's blog about art in the Caribbean and beyond
This is the first of a two-part post on the restitution debate and its significance to the Caribbean. This first part explores the general context and the second part specifically looks at the Caribbean. It is a time of reckoning for museums: museums are increasingly pressured to come to terms with their historical origins,... Continue Reading →
There is a long and not always auspicious history of artists using their work to retaliate against critics and other personal enemies. One famous example is the King Minos figure in Michelangelo's Last Judgement (1535-1541) fresco in the Sistine Chapel, which was very controversial at the time of its creation (and on several occasions after),... Continue Reading →
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 →
For some time now, the Jamaican and Caribbean art world has been buzzing with questions about the next Jamaica Biennial. Launched in 2014, as the successor to the National Biennial and, before that, the Annual National exhibitions, the second Jamaica Biennial was originally scheduled to be held in December-March 2016, as had been the traditional... Continue Reading →
I had initially decided not to review the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ)’s Beyond Fashion exhibition, which opened on September 30. There were several reasons for that decision. One is that I have written quite a bit about the NGJ, recently, and felt that I needed to step back for a bit. I can hardly... 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 →
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