Art Bytes

SCULPTURES FOR WINDRUSH GENERATION

 

To commemorate the Windrush generation, Hackney will unveil two sculptures next year.

Thomas Price, whose grandmother is from Jamaica, and Veronica Ryan, whose parents are from Montserrat, will do the sculptures.

Price, whose art focuses on issues of identity, will create a 9-foot statue using 3D scans of Hackney residents that he hopes will give black Britons “a sense of visibility, connectedness, belonging and an ownership of history that they’ve not been allowed to access fully.”

Ryan will create a series of large marble and bronze sculptures of Caribbean fruit and vegetables as a metaphor for the origins and movement of people. “Many fruit and vegetables have their origins in Asia, and Africa. The perception of origins, and belonging to specific places is an extended part of the conversation,” says Ryan.

The announcement of the sculptures comes amidst several controversial statues in the UK being removed by colleges and protesters participating in the now global Black Lives Matter movement.

Art Bytes

Jamaican artist Arthur Simms’ A Totem for the High Line is now installed at the 16th Street Spur Preserve in New York City’s Chelsea District.

The National Gallery of Jamaica has named Ashley James as guest curator for its 2024 Kingston Biennial which opens December 15th. Titled Green X Gold, the biennial will be the closing highlight of the 2024 Gallery’s 50th anniversary. The exhibition will cover works on the environment, nature, and land, inspired by the Jamaican flag’s ecological symbolism. 

The National Gallery of Jamaica will host a five-day Writivity workshop from August 12th to 16th  to help students sitting the Visual Arts CSEC exams with their reflective journals. The reflective journal is a part of the School-Based Assessment and the final grades of the CSEC exam.

Jamaican artist Garfield Morgan has another exhibit in Canada. This time his work is on display at the Don Wheaton Family YMCA in Edmonton.  until October 31st.

The National Gallery of Jamaica’s 50th Anniversary exhibition, Continuity, runs from June 30 to September 30th, 2024. Continuity revisits ten NGJ’s iconic exhibitions, including the Biennials of 2014, 2017 and 2022 and Jamaica Jamaica, (2020).

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