Photographers Duke and Lisa Wells unveiled a first preview of their three year fine art photography project “The Bahamian Project” on Friday.

Portraits of cancer survivor Erin Brown, musician Peanuts Taylor and historian Gail Saunders were unveiled at the event, celebrating significant progress in the three year journey.

The full exhibition will be mounted as the Bahamian Collection at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) in July 2013, as part of the NAGB’s programming for the 40th Anniversary of the Bahamas’ Independence. The goal of the project is to create a permanent collection of photographs to provide recognition, foster cultural awareness and create a record of the people who make the Bahamas unique.

The project by the two photographers is a collaborative effort with the NAGB and Popopstudios.

Ms Wells told Tribune Entertainment: “The photos were all done by Mr Wells specifically. It is his idea and creation. It was something that he wanted to do after his friend, Jackson Burnside, passed away so suddenly. He was very sad that there wasn’t a legacy like this to document Mr Burnside’s life. So that is when he sort of embarked on this project.”

(Photo credit www.stopmotionproductions.com)

Read the full article by Alesha Cadet of The Tribune

Meet the future of art!

Congratulations to Giovanna Swaby and Kachelle Knowles for winning the Popop Junior Residency Prize for 2013.

These are two of the youngest and brightest artists in the country. Stay connected to watch their progress for the next year at popopstudios.com.

Dialogue + Collaboration = Successful Creative Community!!

~ John Cox

Offered in conjunction with the D’ Aguilar Art Foundation, the Popop Junior Residency Prize allows students the opportunity to explore new artistic paths, to learn and experiment while developing their skills.

The students will be given a studio to share and are invited to interact with artists who hold studios at Popop.

Gio and Kachelle both expressed excitement about the summer ahead.

Additionally, the junior resident artists will be escorted on learning trips. In past years, junior residents travelled to New York to visit galleries and museums. They also gained experience in sustainable art during an eco-art symposium led by Antonius Roberts at Schooner Bay.

This is the fourth year that Popopstudios is offering the program.

Related articles:

PJRP (Popop Junior Residency Prize) 2010
2011 Junior Residency
2012 Junior Resident Artists Announced

“Artisan”
Thursday, May 16, 2013 from 6:30pm to 9:00pm
Central Bank of The Bahamas Art Gallery
Market Street, Nassau
Featuring the work of artists Jan Elliott, Jenny Guy and Mick Guy.
This event is free and open to the public.

All three artists have come together to produce a body of work using traditional textile (Jan Elliott and Jenny Guy) and wood carving (Mick Guy) techniques that both challenge ideas of craft versus art while simultaneously creating a group show of individualized processes and images that speak to each artist’s creative practice. This event is free and open to the public.

(Source: Bahamian Art and Culture)

New artwork by Bahama Woodstarr, at The Liquid Courage gallery on Friday, May 31st from 5 to 8pm

Guests sipped fine wine and sampled gourmet hors d’oeuvres while getting a sneak preview of select photographs from the upcoming Bahamian Project exhibition.

In less than a year, Friday friends at 1ER CRU (pronounced Premier Cru) has become a tradition with an average of 60-80 people showing up every week. Friday, May 10th, featured another dimension, a preview of three of the 40 images that will be unveiled on July 11 at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas under the patronage of the Governor General Arthur Foulkes and Lady Foulkes.

The turn-out was impressive with more than 120 people over the course of the evening. Several of the people who have been photographed for the project made an appearance, including, Pam Burnside, Richard Coulson, Kareem Mortimer, Roderick Johnson, Vera Chase, Jamaal Rolle, Heino Schmid and Sir Durward Knowles, who also became a patron of The Bahamian Project that evening. Members of the Maillis family attended on behalf of the Maillis patriarch.

Read more and watch the video…

The 2014 edition of TS will include artists and curators from the region as well as from the Bahamas.

Happening April 4, 5, & 6, 2014

2014 theme “Water” image by John Cox

It’s a combination that’s easy to swallow and hard to beat on a Friday night — a sneak peek at a sample of the photo gallery of faces of the spirit of The Bahamas, fine wine and a selection of gourmet hors d’oeuvres by one of the region’s finest caterers.

The wine, food by Events by Alexandra and photography by the Bahamian Project photo artists is set for Friday, May 10 at 1ER CRU at Bristol Wines and Spirits, top of the hill Gladstone Road. It is also a get-together with an anniversary of Independence theme.

In less than a year, Friday friends at 1ER CRU has become a popular event with 60-80 people showing up every week. This Friday will feature another dimension, a preview of three of the 40 images that will be unveiled on July 11 at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas under the patronage of the Governor General Arthur Foulkes and Lady Foulkes.

The Bahamian Project is the brainchild of the photography team of Lisa and Duke Wells and it is hoped that the collection of images will inspire a national portrait gallery.

“We wanted to capture the essence of the spirit and soul of Bahamian culture, the faces that make The Bahamas the special country it is,” said Duke Wells. “Although the Collection includes a few of the decision-makers who have impacted the first 40 years of Independence, it is also the people who make our everyday lives special, a craftsperson, athlete, drummer, business leader, those who have created our culture.” The NAGB and Popopstudios are collaborators on the Bahamian Project.

Friday Friends with complimentary wines by Bristol, food by Events by Alexandra and the preview of portraiture runs from 5-8 pm. More information available at www.bahamianproject.com

By Diane Phillips and Associates

A short interview with Finnish art blogger Inka Juslin.

Heino Schmid is an artist living and working in Nassau, Bahamas. He completed his MA in Fine Arts at the Utrecht School of the Arts in The Netherlands, and got his BFA degree in Photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, US. Heino Schmid participated at the VOLTA NY Show with Nassau-based Popopstudios International Center for the Visual Arts in March 2013.

You were born in Bahamas, how did that build your artist identity?

My father is German and my mother is Bahamian but I was born and raised in the Bahamas where I’ve lived my whole life outside of my education. I did my undergraduate studies in the US and my graduate studies in The Netherlands. My artistic identity is very much rooted in my experiences here and I find a great deal of fodder and inspiration in my immediate environment. As a country The Bahamas really lends itself to a lot of material investigation and I’ve really enjoyed having my studio and my creative practice based here. It’s close enough to the US where I am still able to see significant exhibitions but it’s private enough for me to develop a body of work on my own terms.

What does globalization mean to you?

Globalization, in terms of the creative process, means communication. Through social media it’s never been easier to have constructive conversations with your peers and that is really exciting. The Internet also levels the playing field in terms of information. It’s a wonderful time to be a creative thinker because there’s so much information available, which I can filter at my own pace and discretion to construct a viable practice.

How did you experience VOLTA, what did it offer you personally?

The VOLTA NY experience was extremely constructive to me. I believe that as an artist you initially control the medium of the work, the content, the presentation and the context of the work, but the context is the most fluid and gives your work life. It was hugely exciting for me to take my work out of the context in which it was made and place it in an environment where the dialogue would be completely different. The conversations that I had at VOLTA NY were constructive, positive and completely impossible to have, I think, in The Bahamas given the change of context.

Where is your focus as an artist, the media and the location?

As an artist I try to really approach art in itself as a visual dialogue so the media and the location hold equal sway in the production of my projects. The balance between media and location is always an interesting problem to solve. On the one hand you want to stay open to your environment you’re in no matter where you are to produce work, and on the other hand you want to make the work that’s relevant to your own practice in a sustainable way. When considered responsibly I think the tension between the two is always an exciting and productive challenge to embrace.

(1.) HEINO SCHMID: ‘Landmines’. Dried coconuts with steel nails, Dimensions vary, 2013

(2.) HEINO SCHMID, ’10425′: Mixed media on paper with painted coconuts, 45 x 45 in, 2003/2013.

(3) HEINO SCHMID in his studio at Popopstudios, photo by Nadia Huggins

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“JAB: A look at Trinidad’s Traditional Carnival” opened last week at Popopostudios Gallery.

The mixed media exhibition by artist and filmmaker Maria Govan features photographs and video installation (by Govan and Abigail Hadeed) and paintings.

The work is inspired by Govan’s time spent in Trinidad through a grant from the D’Aguilar Art Foundation. In her artist’s statement, Govan shares her inspiration.

Artist’s statement: “I have always been drawn to those people, places and things that linger in the shadows – all that lies beneath the surface.

“When we think of Trinidad’s Carnival we don’t typically think of devils and imps, dragons and baby dolls, bookmen and sailors – so when given the opportunity by the D’Aguliar Foundation to spend time in Trinidad and look at Carnival, I knew exactly where to focus.

“I had visited Trinidad as a filmmaker over the years and in doing so, built great relationships with the thriving creative community there.

“Abigail Hadeed, a veteran Trinidadian photographer who has been documenting the incredible mythology of traditional Carnival for more than two decades, offered to host my visit.

“It has been such a gift from she, The D’Aguilar Foundation and Popopstudios to share with you some of my inspiration.

“We traveled the terrain of East Port of Spain, the birthplace of the steel pan and Carnival. Both there and in the hills of Paramin, Abigail and I built this body of work.

“With this, we hope to evoke the feeling of this magical, dynamic, raw and intense space–space that we believe to be the true heart and soul of Trinidad’s Carnival! ”

- Maria Govan

Source: The Nassau Guardian
Photos: Lisa Wells

Vivid colours, enchanting prints and hand-printed fabrics are combined to create a unique 100% Bahamian-made line of clothing and accessories. Completely inspired by The Bahamas, its history, and its indigenous flora and fauna, Bahama Hand Prints’ exclusive designs are loved by Bahamians and visitors alike. Located in the Island Traders Building Annex, off East Bay and Mackey St, just south of Paradise Island exit bridge, Bahama Hand Prints (BHP) is a Bahamian creative success story that has been producing stunningly beautiful and unique products for decades.

Bahama Hand Prints was established in Nassau, The Bahamas in 1966 by graphic artists Helen Astarita and Berta Sands. On a trip to the Florida Keys, the two visited a small factory in Key West where they observed fabric being hand printed, using silk-screens. So impressed were they by the procedure and the spectacularly coloured fabrics produced, that they decided to start their own company back in The Bahamas. Helen and Berta were enthusiastic and quickly mastered the techniques involved in making silk screens, mixing the inks, hand printing the fabric, designing and sewing the final products. Their bold and brilliant designs became the trademark of BHP. Through the years, the company changed hands a few times including owners Ziggy Brozozog and Amanda Lindroth.

Today, BHP is a small factory and boutique where the tradition of hand screen-printing continues under the ownership of Bahamian sisters-in-law Linda Brown and Joie Lamare who purchased the company in 2001 and now own all the vintage prints and artwork. One day Joie walked into the establishment as a customer and was completely blown away. She presented the idea of possibly taking the business over to Linda, together they made some enquiries and when they found out it was available, they jumped on the opportunity. The rest is history.

It hasn’t been an easy road for the pair. It has been back-breaking work that has brought them through a number of highs and lows. But through blood, sweat and tears, they have managed to catapult BHP from a small portfolio to a successful brand that incorporates lines of resortwear clothing, fabric, handbags, and home accessories. They operate from their own factory and sell from their signature retail boutique as well as wholesale to retail stores in The Bahamas and the US.

May 2006 was the real turning point for BHP’s success when Lamare and Brown moved their manufacturing from New York to Nassau. They had developed a wonderful relationship with their manufacturers in New York but in order to streamline the company and really control cost, bringing the bulk of the operation home to Nassau made much more economical sense. It also gave them control over supply and demand so they are able to provide more or less product however the market requires.

Over the years, they have hired a series of sewers and today a talented crew of three sewers manufacture everything for BHP, with the exception of the handbags which are done in Italy.

While the signature style of Bahama Hand Prints began with Helen and Berta, and can be seen in their collection of vintage designs, it continues to evolve today under the direction of their master printer & designer, Dylan Rapillard.

Dylan Rapillard was born in 1979 in Freeport, Grand Bahama, grew up between Nassau and Switzerland, and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality Management from Ecole Hoteliere De Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland in 2002. His choice of study was purely an economical and stable one but he soon found himself bored and in need of more profound challenges. Freedom was important to him and a desk job was just the opposite of what his soul searched for. Never did he dream he would become a textile designer.

Under his skillful hands, Dylan produces bold and gorgeous prints for BHP that display strong technique and are drawn from essentially four different inspirations: florals, leaves, shells and abstracts. Dylan was the first designer to introduce abstracts to BHP. This line of work has been extremely gratifying to the artist and designer whose chief reward is to know that people choose and wear and outfit their homes with what he has created.

From the printing table, their fabric is used to create garments and accessories, which are developed in-house, crafted by their talented sewing team and introduced as a new collection each Fall.

In August 2012, Bahama Hand Prints opened its newly renovated boutique where vivid colours, captivating prints and fine fabrics are combined in their stunning collection of garments, bags and home accessories. Their new Fabric Room is a colourful and inspiring space, containing a wide variety of fabrics available by the yard for home design and other projects.

At Bahama Hand Prints, fabric may also be custom printed to the customer’s specifications. They offer a variety of ground fabrics appropriate for a multitude of applications including upholstery, drapery, bedding, indoor/outdoor furnishings, clothing and more. A print can be chosen from their repertoire of designs and hand printed in the colour or colours desired, on any fabric they offer, including cotton poplin, twill, cotton-linen blends, linen and outdoor fabric.

Visitors are welcome to drop-in at the factory and watch their printers at work. (They recommend you give them a call in advance.) It is a thrilling experience to observe yards of plain fabric being transformed into colourful art, with designs that capture the beauty of The Bahama Islands.

Article by Dionne Benjamin-Smith
Source: Bahamian Art & Culture Newsletter

Visit the Bahama Hand Prints website…

More random bits of wisdom, good advice, a few observations and a couple of statements taken from the walls of Dylan Rapillard’s zen garden at Popopstudios…

Other messages from the zen garden

Click poster to enlarge

Paintings by Maria Govan
Photos and Video Installation by Maria Govan and Abigail Hadeed

Opening Reception: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 6:00pm at Popopstudios Gallery.

“This work is inspired by my time spent in Trinidad, having been granted support from the D’Aguilar Foundation to travel and look at Trinidad’s Carnival. It is a mixed media show with photographs, video installation and paintings,” said Maria Govan.

Artists please use this form to assemble your artist profile.  Please submit the necessary information in the following categories.

1.    ARTIST STATEMENT
(no longer that 300 words expressing your personal vision how you see yourself benefiting from the prize.)

2.    IMAGES OF WORK
(6 to 8 images at 72 dpi. This illustrates what you feel is your strongest work.  All types of work are acceptable.)

3.    CRITICAL WRITING
(one example of a critical paper on an artist or his/her practice written in the past year.)

4.    CURRENT INFLUENCES
(names and images of two contemporary artists that interest you.)

5.    CREDENTIALS
(list artist awards or honors)

6.    CONTACT INFORMATION
(address, phone, email & web).

All profiles need to be submitted digitally by Friday May 3rd, 2013 to BOTH John Cox at iamjohncoxedu<at>gmail.com and Heino Schmid at heinoschmid<at>gmail.com

Looking forward to your submissions.

Good Luck!

The Community Advisory Committee for the Fort Charlotte Urban Renewal 2.0 on Tuesday announced plans for its first ever ‘Fort Charlotte Day’ which will be held on the grounds of historic Fort Charlotte on Marcus Bethel Way this Saturday, April 27.

The event, which kicks off at noon, will feature many talents and faces of the Fort Charlotte community. Entertainment will be provided by various neighborhood church choirs, the Oakes Field Primary School Band and the Urban Renewal Band.

Food, art and craft, and other items will be on sale.

“The event is designed to bring together all the residents of Fort Charlotte and indeed to showcase this historic, beautiful community to the rest of the island,”  said committee co-chair, Cindy-Coakley Knowles.

“It’s going to be a family affair, with the youth at the centre. This is so important as young people are often vilified in the media and we want to show that there is hope for our youth particularly in Fort Charlotte.”

Besides providing the community with a positive image boost, the committee also hopes the one-day event will bring a bit of economic relief to the area residents working as vendors.

Moreover, the event is expected to bring the community together, helping residents get to know their neighbours in a safe and fun-filled environment.

“In an expansive community like Fort Charlotte which stretches from the western side of Nassau Street all the way to the Grove, West Bay Street, people do not know each other,” said Terrance Pratt, public relations committee member. “We hope that this event will be one of many to draw neighbours closer to each other.”

Since the Relaunch of Urban Renewal 2.0 the Fort Charlotte Urban Renewal Committee has sponsored a number of programmes for the community, including a back to school cookout and give away last September, followed up by a Careers Day/Job Fair in October.

Proceeds from this event will go to assist The Persis Rodgers Home for the Aged and the Fort Charlotte Youth Band.

Precision Media

click to enlarge

Issues surrounding fear and security and gender are explored in three new exhibitions at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB).

Two of the exhibitions – “The John Beadle Project” and “Master Artists of The Bahamas” – are set to open next week, and the third, “SINGLESEX”, opened last month.

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“The John Beadle Project” features a series of new works by Bahamian artist John Beadle, who is known as an accomplished painter but in recent years has broadened his range to include sculpture and large-scale installation.

John Beadle in his studio. Photo by Nadia Huggins

“As an artist who is finely attuned to the issues of our society, he is known for works that quietly yet deeply observe and raise unsettling questions about our human condition and how we see and treat each other,” says NAGB director Amanda Coulson.

“Born to a Bahamian mother and Jamaican father, Beadle has himself felt the sting of xenophobia and many of his pieces judiciously critique our relationship to our own émigré community and delves into issues – personal, psychological and societal – that are a result of both migration and immigration.

“Immigration is an act of the outside coming in, though this ‘outside’ is usually somewhere distant, somewhere perhaps unfamiliar or scary.”

Coulson notes however that in his new body of work, Beadle turns his gaze closer to home, further inward, and addresses issues of fear and

security within our homeland, treating the “outside” as that perceived through the car or house window.

A myriad of figures – not dissimilar to those that appear on the paper shooting targets – are arranged in the Grand Ballroom of Villa Doyle, each one wrought out of some kind of screen or security measure.

These ominous human silhouettes are constructed from colonial-style metal curlicue gates, mosquito netting, or chain link. The result is unsettling: are the figures looming outside of our window or are they, in another scenario, our own reflection…the person hiding behind the bars?

“The installation raises the issue of gating in our communities: What message does this send to our neighbors? What does it do to our own psyches, to lock ourselves behind bars every night in order to sleep?

“Some of the silhouetted figures appear in the patterns of metal grating but are, in fact, made out of cardboard – a much flimsier material – which suggests that we lull ourselves into this false sense of security, that perhaps these gates are only figments that give us psychological peace, but not the real issue,” says Coulson.

“This, in turn, asks us to consider the other mental barriers: those we construct between ‘us’ and ‘them’ – do these lead to a more human understanding of one another, to a society where we could, in fact, live without bars or do they, rather, escalate the problems we currently face?”

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‘Master Artists of The Bahamas’

On its final leg, the traveling exhibition “Master Artists of The Bahamas” – which has been shown at the Waterloo Center for the Arts in Iowa and the Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee, Florida – comes home to The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

Instigated by the Waterloo Center for the Arts (WCA) and filmmaker Karen Arthur – whose many films include “Brent Malone: Father of Bahamian Art” and “Amos Ferguson: Match Me if You Can”, among others – this project was initially conceived to raise the profile of Bahamian art in the United States and bring the work of Bahamian artists to new audiences.

Filmmaker Arthur, with her partner Thomas Neuwirth, had finished the Island Films production “Artists of The Bahamas” and this inspired the Iowan curators – Cammie Scully and Kent Shankle – to stage the show, focusing on the artists featured in the film.

Alongside the WCA’s own stunning collection of over 65 Amos Fergusons, the beginning of their fascination with Bahamian art, they gathered work by the other artists – John Beadle, Jackson Burnside, Stan Burnside, John Cox, Kendal Hanna, Brent Malone, Eddie Minnis, Antonius Roberts, Dave Smith and Max Taylor – to form a stellar show, which has been re-curated here in Nassau to include some entirely new works.

“Tailored for the local audience, while still appealing to international visitors, the show is re-installed in such a way as to extrapolate new meanings and connections between the works and is an outstanding testament to our Bahamian art and culture,” says Coulson.

On view, among other works, will be the last ever paintings of the beloved Jackson Burnside, as well as new works from his brother Stan Burnside’s most recent show, which opened on Valentine’s Day, (Jackson’s birthday), works that grapple with issues of love and loss.

During the run of show, all of Island Films’ library will be screened, free of charge, including the latest in the series “Jackson Burnside III: Native Son” on Saturday, April 27 at 6 p.m. in the presence of the film’s director.

‘SINGLESEX’

As a response to this show and the original film “Artists of The Bahamas” – which at its opening caused some controversy for its lack of female participants – the NAGB has also installed a powerful show in the ground floor galleries entitled “SINGLESEX” in an effort to reclaim art history, including women into the discourse.

At the NAGB’s inaugural show – the INE in 2003 – female artists represented only 24 percent of the roster; at the recent NE6 the ratio was strict 50/50. Now the NAGB presents a show that is 100 percent women, a show that holds its own with work by Chantal Bethel, Dionne Benjamin-Smith, Dede Brown, Jessica Colebrook, June Collie, Christina Darville, Erica Moiah James, Sue Katz, Shan Kelly, Sabrina Lightbourn, Candis Marshall, Jessica Miller, Nadine Munroe, Holly Parotti, Barbara Pearless, Leanne Russell, Tamara Russell, Nora Smith, Giovanni Swaby and Elyse Wasile.

“The cultural expectations of femininity are being deconstructed and in many works, reconstructed,” says Coulson. “‘SINGLESEX’ broaches the questions: how do females project female identity in their work and how does one define a feminine artwork rather than a masculine artwork? Has there been a transformation in the visibility and practice of female artists in our nation? What does this mean for the landscape of Bahamian art? Even further, what do these numbers mean for the growing and strengthening community of female Bahamian artists?”

Seen as pendants to one another, the two shows “Master Artists of The Bahamas” and “SINGLESEX” show the vast range of contemporary practice in our country by a myriad of talents in a stunning variety of media and materials.

• ‘The John Beadle Project’ and ‘Master Artists of The Bahamas’ open on Thursday, April 25, 7-9 p.m. at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, West Hill Street. For more information, visit www.nagb.org.bs.

Erica Wells
The Nassau Guardian
Published: Saturday, April 20, 2013