Ivorhod Walters’ Before They Came will be part of the second staging of Due West, the National Gallery West’s annual exhibition that runs till April 11th. Walters, a St. James resident, describes the work as a Plaster of Paris reductive sculpture inspired by Ivan van Sertima’s They Came Before Columbus. Van Sertima’s famous book argues that Africans were in the Caribbean long before Columbus. Walters’ piece depicts a bronze African stone head with the African symbols God and wisdom inscribed on both sides of the ears. He is one of 14 in the submission-based exhibition for emerging and professional artists from Western Jamaica to gain experience and a platform to launch or develop their careers.
Isaac Mendes Belisario was one of the earliest artists to depict Jamaican culture. This character sketch, “Koo-Koo, or
