VISUAL ARTS BARBADOS

Welcome to Barbados Monthly Arts Events Magazine

Thirteen years of the publication

All issues https://issuu.com/corriescott

This is a completely free magazine created out of the need to inform so that we can get to exhibitions, artist talks, workshops and more, rather than hearing about events after they have taken place.

I encourage anyone with a visual arts event to get in contact with me at corriescott@gmail.com and I will add a free page for your exhibition, classes, workshops, talks etc.

Let’s get the arts out there!

Please, pass this magazine on to others and so help the creative side of Barbados get all the exposure possible.

Corrie Scott Publisher

VISUAL ARTS EVENTS BARBADOS on Instagram.

@visualartsbarbadosevents

Visualartsbarbadosevents

The Barbados Arts Events page was created to promote the Visual Arts Events in Barbados and artists whether exhibiting here in island or overseas. The focus is on the events for the fine arts, encompassing art, photography, sculpture and installations, gallery receptions, exhibitions, talks, interviews, workshops, publications, studios, residencies. I will also post visual art collaborations with writers, theatre, dance, videos, music and creatives but it has to encompass the visual arts/artists to be posted on this page.

I started this page because I felt that the visual arts were not getting much needed exposure to expose the talent in Barbados and around the world. I wish I could encompass all the creative arts as there is so much happening on this tiny wonderful island of ours but I am a one woman band doing this free. Over the years this page has become a support for all creative events in Barbados and I was happy for this but realised that it was diluting the fine arts section which it is meant to focus on.

I need to bring the focus back in these group pages to the visual arts.

Thank you for understanding.

Corrie Scott

The National Cultural Foundation (NCF) is partnering with a veteran visual artist, with over 50 years’ experience, to showcase a collection that captures the essence of the Barbadian landscape.

“ONE BIG PAINTING: Alison Chapman-Andrews Alison Chapman-andrews– 80 Years of Seeing”, will open at the Queen’s Park Gallery on Saturday, April 15, 2023, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The opening reception is free for the public.

Chapman-Andrews has been a fixture of the Barbadian art scene for over 50 years. Her perseverance, vivacity, unique way of seeing and prolific work ethic have produced an astounding oeuvre of work, displaying an unmistakable style that has, among many other things, come to typify the iconic image of Barbadian life.

Born Alison Armstrong in England, she is a native of Hertford, and studied from 1963 to 1966 at the Royal College of Art, receiving the ARCA Award for her painting.Chapman-Andrews moved to Barbados in 1971 and began painting the local landscape, which has since become central to her work. During her career she has worked as a teacher, curator and newspaper columnist as well as an artist, and in 2006 she received the Governor General’s Award for her work.

This exhibition treats the viewers to an exceptional experience. It gives access to the inner workings of the artist’s mind and process through this look at her illustrious career, categorised by concepts, imagery and motifs according to her own powerful vision for a retrospective .

In this display, Chapman-Andrews defines her practice on her own terms, with a purposeful sense of wisdom and agency. The show also commemorates her 80th birthday – a day she celebrated on November 30, 2022, alongside the island’s 56th year of Independence and our first year as a Republic.

As Barbados continues to make bold moves culturally and historically, the NCF is proud to uplift and honour the stalwarts of our creative community, ensuring their legacies are firmly in place and made visible for current and future generations to engage with. As we salute her past and future contributions to our nation, we invite you to explore the extensive canvas of her creative journey!

Barbados Today news.

With her life firmly devoted to the arts, the continued contribution of prolific painter Alison ChapmanAndrews is being showcased with an exhibition at the Queen’s Park Gallery.

ART. BEAUTY. MAGIC. ‘ONE BIG PAINTING Opens at Queens Park Gallery

By Simone Tull

“With her life firmly devoted to the arts, the continued contribution of prolific painter Alison ChapmanAndrews is being showcased with an exhibition at the Queen’s Park Gallery. The National Cultural Foundation (NCF) has partnered with the accomplished visual artist to stage One Big Painting: Alison Chapman-Andrews - 80 years of Seeing in celebration of her 80th birthday later this year.

Members of the art community gathered on Saturday evening for the opening. Among those in attendance was Carol Roberts-Reifer, Chief Executive Officer of the NCF. Embracing the essence of creativity which Chapman-Andrews embodies, her welcome remarks were delivered with a poignant narrative.

In her own inimitable style, Roberts-Reifer, in an impactful excerpt, said, “Sixty years and counting I marveled, sixty years of imagination, inspiration and expression, a treasure of her generation and ours, and those to come. Sixty years of beauty, of perseverance, of absolutely prolific work, of powerful statements about this land, her land… our land.”

Roberts-Reifer extended gratitude to Chapman-Andrews, stating, “Thank you Alison for your life’s work to date. Thank you for generously and selflessly affording us a glimpse of your soul. Thank you for nudging us towards an appreciation of this land and our land, and most importantly, thank you for the beauty, the creativity, and the magic.” As a token of appreciation, she presented the artiste with a bouquet of flowers.

Curator and collaborator Katherine Kennedy noted, “One Big Painting commemorates many things. Just as we see variations of the physical and the social landscape through Alison Chapman- Andrew’s artwork, we are also seeing recent landmarks such as the artiste’s 80th birthday, sixty years of artistic production, fifty- six years of Barbados’ Independence and recently our first anniversary as a Republic, milestones shared by Alison and the island she cherishes and calls home.”

Kennedy said, “The exhibition, first conceptualized as a virtual show with an accompanying catalogue and later expanded to include the physical manifestation that you see today, has been lovingly crafted through Alison’s own eyes, taking ownership in the framing and contextualization of her legacy. It was humbling to be asked to work with her to co-curate this final product, to facilitate, coordinate and support the artist’s vision and celebration of a lifetime dedicated to culture and art.”

Featured speaker Dr. Alison Thompson underscored the importance of the event paying homage to Chapman-Andrews, who is multifaceted but widely known for her landscapes. She said, “As an artiste, as a writer, as a collector as an agitator, Alison’s contribution to the story of art in Barbados and the wider Caribbean is tremendous and we are so very fortunate to once again be standing here in this gallery surrounded by her paintings and to experience all that they give to us the viewers.”

She admitted, “For her, seeing is more than just looking. Seeing is revelation. It is the ability to see anew and discover and understand in more nuanced ways, and that is what I have always found in Alison’s paintings. They continue to inspire us to look again at the familiar world that surrounds us and to reacquaint ourselves with the rich, mysterious, cosmic, ever evolving, ever shifting pleasures that are to be found there, and for that gift Alison, we thank you.”

The virtual component is available on the National Cultural Foundation website. Art lovers are invited to visit the gallery for the exhibition, which provides a new dimension for familiar images. It will be open Monday to Saturday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. until May 13, 2023. (STT)”

Click here to read more in our epaper edition: https://bit.ly/3GPaVrK

HER BLOOD SPOKE: JOSCELYN GARDNER, KARA SPRINGER, ALBERTA WHITTLE at Art Gallery Ontario, Toronto, Canada

April 15 - October 29, 2023

Alberta Whittle. Her blood spoke in Creole, in Gaelic, in Twi and in Yoruba, 2022. Acrylic, Florida Water, Bay Rum on cotton, Overall: 200 x 200 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Purchase, with funds from the Friends of Global Africa & the Diaspora, 2022. © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy of the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery. Photo: Adam Reich Photography. 2022/7089.

Joscelyn Gardner, Kara Springer and Alberta Whittle at The Gallery of Ontario, Canada. April 15 - October 29, 2023

‘Her Blood Spoke’: Joscelyn Gardner, Kara Springer, Alberta Whittle presents 16 artworks by three artists of Barbadian descent, reflecting on contemporary and historical experiences with Black maternal health and bodily autonomy. As access to reproductive healthcare remains precarious globally, this installation offers a consideration of the ways in which Black women's bodies have long been sites of conflict.

Featuring lithographs, photographs, painting and video, the artworks on view, use archival sleuthing, autobiography and conceptual storytelling to situate women's labour in conversation with themes of bodily agency, resistance, and ancestral care. Her Blood Spoke emerges from an awareness of the historical systems of racial and gendered violence that continue to shape our contemporary moment.

April 15 - October 29, 2023 https://ago.ca/exhibitions/her-blood-spoke-joscelyn-gardner-kara-springer-al berta-whittle

Here the BPS features the fine art photographer Hugh Walker who has his own unique style.

Hugh will be presenting a 3 day workshop this month which sold out within a day.

Due to the high demand for this workshop BPS and Hugh will be presenting this same workshop later in the year for those who missed this one.

The Barbados Museum and Historical Society’s Cunard Gallery.

World Art Day is a timely reminder that art can bring people together to inspire, heal and share. Visit the Cunard Gallery at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society until 5 pm today to discover a wide variety of paintings and prints which tell historic stories which depict Barbados, the wider Caribbean and so much more!

This gallery is home to historical scenes of Bridgetown as well as the 1848 original oil painting, Careenage by Percy William Justyne and the 17thcentury original oil painting Governor Robinson Going to Church. The work of several military artists are also on display including the work of Lieut. J. H. Caddy and Lieut. J.M. Carter. Caddy’s coloured prints feature St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica and St. Kitts, while Carter developed a series of street and landscape scenes of Barbados. You can also view six original oil paintings by Agostino Brunias depicting West Indian lifestyles in the 17th century.

The Bonnie Cole Wilson Art Collection at Ocean Blue Boutique Hotel.

Generosity: It was never Bonnie's intention to form an art collection. Her goal was quite simply to support the artists, to give them the income that would allow them to continue with their work. Bonnie was made aware of the plight of the artist by her fully trained sister-in-law Barbara-Anne Preston who struggled to make a go of it in Barbados.

Bonnie sits in her beautiful St George family home surrounded by a stunning accumulation of local artworks which number over 1,600 pieces and speaks about her Trinidad childhood where her father a highly esteemed tenor filled the house with his extraordinary voice. It is here that her understanding and connection to the arts began.

First it was the Casuarina Hotel that housed the growing collection, there Bonnie filled every available space with paintings and sculpture. So many sculptures! It was joyful ! Now Bonnie's collection is once again being shared with the public. Last November after a sensitive restoration of an Ian Morrison boutique hotel by Bonnie's daughter Liesje Cole, pieces of the work have been lovingly displayed.

There is work by Ras Ishi Butcher, Alison Chapman Andrews, Oliver Burnett, Arthur Atkinson, Ras Akyem, Kenneth Blackman, Annalee Davis and on and on. Visit and enjoy their views and menu too. The Ocean Blue Hotel is the perfect example of generosity !

Article courtesy of Heather-Dawn Scott

Photography by Heather-Dawn Scott and Corrie Scott https://www.oceanblue-resort.com/about