Artists, Patrons Commend JN Exhibition at Inaugural WIFAX on Kingston’s Waterfront

From its rich collection of works of art showcasing some of the best of Jamaica’s foundational figures and finest contemporary artists, The Jamaica National Group helped transform the Penthouse Suites at the ROK Hotel in downtown Kingston into a gallery. The exhibition formed part of the week-long West Indies Fashion, Art and Architecture Exchange, styled WIFAX by Saint International, on the Kingston waterfront.

From pioneering artists such as Barrington Watson, Robert Armstrong, Carl Abrahams, Alexander Cooper and Richard Hall, to contemporary painters such as Jodi Ann McMillan, Carol Chrichton, Michele Lee Lambert and Heather Sutherland-Wade, patrons and artists wandered through the suites overlooking the renowned Kingston Harbour, while having their own unique ‘exchanges’ with the works on display. Each piece selected told different stories about Jamaica’s history and its present, providing glimpses into its colonial past, rural and urban poverty, revivalism and pastimes.      

For artists, who themselves had selections on display in other sections of the Penthouse Suites, the JN Group’s collection was an opportunity to bask in the works of the greats who also influenced them in ways that, in some cases, not even they had yet come to realise.

Influence and Perspectives

The works of Carl Abrahams, for instance, immediately sent a flood of feelings rushing through John Campbell, who had helped to hang the paintings for the JN exhibition.

“Carl Abrahams is one of the artists who I saw when I was young, who I thought was just out of this world,” he said, seemingly growing fuller by the moment with pleasant memories of the works that had piqued his interest in art. “I’ve seen his religious works, I’ve seen his representational works and they have his language. He’s not trying to be anyone else; it’s a strong and distinct language he has developed. So, there is no doubt, when you see a Carl Abrahams piece, you see a Carl Abrahams piece,” Campbell explained.

“He captures these small moments…,” he continued, describing a painting in which Abrahams depicts a Friday night dance in a community, but one man is seen walking away from the excitement. “The guy is walking away like he can’t get no woman…,” he said with amusement. The depictions captured so vividly in Abrahams’ works, often reminded Campbell of scenes he saw in his own community of Edgewater, Portmore, St Catherine, where he grew up.

Although Campbell’s art is far more abstract, Abrahams’ pieces influenced him to create his own unique language in every work he produced and every story he told.

However, the viewing was a moment of discovery for Kianne Patrice Hutchinson, as she admired a piece by Alexander Cooper portraying an impoverished community, where, despite the abject poverty and the crumbling infrastructure around the characters in the painting, children jumping rope conveyed a sense of innocence and contentment. Although she had long admired Cooper’s work, it was his diversity of style that most resonated with Hutchinson, as Campbell described Cooper’s body of work. Cooper’s movement between techniques affirmed Hutchinson’s own approach, which similarly encompasses a range of styles.

“Along my journey, people used to say you have to just choose one style and stick to that for the rest of your life and perfect it, and that’s it. I always felt like that was an indictment, because my mind doesn’t work that way. I’m such a curious person. I read voraciously, I’m interested in everything, and so it would be so opposite to who I am as a person to stick to one thing even though every single cell in my body is telling me to go in a different direction,” she reasoned. “So, what John says about it’s ok to be diverse, I embrace that.”

Romaine Lewis also found much to admire in the JN collection. For the St Thomas native, the most important characteristic shared by the pieces was their collective ability to transport viewers. As an artist who constantly seeks to transport his audiences into the fleeting moments of life he captures on canvas, Lewis found that the textures, tones and varied styles of the selected pieces offered a similar experience. But he connected most with Barrington Watson’s UWI, which captures a moment in the Chapel Gardens on the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies.

“Perhaps it’s a bias. We share a parish in a sense, but he has a particular way of capturing people that is dynamic, and sometimes it’s not always easy to get, because it’s subtle in the way that he does it. [As an artist], you want dynamism, but you don’t want it to be overdone or exaggerated. The subtlety is hard and he gets subtlety,” he explained, pointing out Watson’s ability to capture the distance between objects and subjects as an example of his mastery. It’s a skill Lewis himself continues to hone as he draws his audience into the scenes he envisions.    

Opportunities abound

Artists and patrons alike commended the collection and JN Group’s willingness to showcase select pieces. After viewing them, some expressed a desire for more institutions to follow suit.

“I’d like to see more like this. I’d like to go somewhere and see a collection that tells the story of our past coming present, as well as institutions such as JN to start doing this again… so that the public can be aware of the historical context of our art and our narrative,” opined Campbell.

Hutchinson added that the exhibition provided important confirmation of JN’s role in preserving Jamaican art and history. She believes, however, that the organisation also has an opportunity to collaborate with living artists and preserve their work.

“We stand on the shoulders of the past, those who came before us, but it cannot be when the person dies that you scramble to acquire their works. Institutions overseas have gone past that,” Hutchinson emphasised.  “When you look at the art space globally, Jamaica is much slower to get where other countries have gone, but it is an opportunity for you,” she advised the organisation.

JN Group

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