Work by Alexander "Bamboo King" Dempster in foreground, with exhibition sign by Kemel Leeford Rankine in the background Ania Freer describes herself as "an Australian/Jamaican filmmaker and creative story-teller." She operates and curates an online gallery and Instagram platform, Goat Curry Gallery, which features work by the Jamaican craft producers she works with as well... Continue Reading →
Parochialism or Inclusiveness? The Inaugural NGJ Summer Exhibition – Part I
This is the first of a two-part post on the National Gallery of Jamaica Summer Exhibition. Part 2, which takes a closer look at the exhibition itself, can be found here. Having worked in curatorial positions in a museum context, at the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ), for the better part of my thirty-five years... Continue Reading →
Field Notes # 1: How to Prepare for Juried Art Exhibitions
Over the 35 years I have lived in Jamaica, I have been the lead curator of more than 45 exhibitions and I have been involved in many others, as a juror, as a supervisor or mentor of other curators, as curatorial and organizational support staff, as a contributing writer, and also as an observer and... Continue Reading →
The Elephant in the Museum
Late last month, on December 28 to be precise, I visited what is now branded as the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, a suburb of Brussels. My visit, during a family vacation to Belgium, came just a few weeks after the museum had reopened, after being closed for about five years for extensive renovations. The 86 million... Continue Reading →
Fashioning Exhibitions: Some Thoughts on “Beyond Fashion”
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 →
Too Close for Comfort
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 →