PARTICIPATING ARTISTS 2013

 

"CRY OF THE EARTH" by Diogenes Ballester

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

 

Carl F. Anderson - Guyana

Guyanese painter Carl Anderson received his early art education at the Burrowes School of the Arts in Guyana, under the guidance of luminaries such as Denis Williams, Stanley Greaves and Philip Moore. Afterwards he proceeded to immerse himself in the Latin American art milieu by living for 13 years in Venezuela before returning to his hometown. Known internationally for his bold geometric “Ribbon Series” as well as striking photo realistic paintings, Carl’s work has been exhibited widely in Europe, North and South America, including the Malta Biennale, Italy’s Grolla D’Oro and the Guyana National Art Gallery. Carl’s most recent series of works tackled the controversial subject of domestic violence.

 

Aziza - Barbados

As one of the Caribbean's premier Abstract Expressionists, it is only fitting that its spirit and vitality are so well represented in Aziza's vivid, powerful paintings. Each work reflects her individuality, an international sensibility and an extraordinary palette. In the U.S. she studied privately in Washington DC, and at the San Francisco Institute of Art, the University of California in Berkeley, and at Laney College in Oakland. A painter for over 30 years, Aziza has exhibited and won awards internationally for works that are now represented in the private collections of art lovers across the world. Her exhibition credits include solo shows in conjunction with the US Information Service (USIS) in both Kabul, Afghanistan and Washington, DC. Aziza's paintings have been shown at the US Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, in addition to the " Pro Arts" exhibit in Oakland, Cal., the " San Francisco Women Artists" shows in San Francisco, the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo, and the National Museum of Antigua and Barbuda as well as at numerous banks, clubs, studios and restaurants throughout the Caribbean. Her works are well represented at Antigua's prestigious Harmony Hall and other galleries throughout the Caribbean. A member of Pro Arts in Oakland, SF Women Artists, the Barbados Arts Council, and the Antigua Artists Society, Aziza paints daily wherever she is at the moment.

 

Diogenes Ballester – Puerto Rico

Diogenes Ballester, is a visual artist, educator, and writer who holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BFA from the Catholic University of Puerto Rico. He has taught as Professor of Art at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Arts, in New York City, the State University of New York at New Paltz, the College of New Rochelle, School of Arts and Science, and The State University of New York at Albany. Mr. Ballester’s work explores oral history, memory, mythology, ritual, and cultural identity along a transnational spectrum. In recent exhibitions, he has appropriated cultural objects and historical artifacts together with painting, drawing, prints and new media as a way of accessing the past and re-interpreting the present in a trans-Caribbean dialogue. He currently works full time in his studio in New York City’s East Harlem and gives workshops and lectures at conferences and universities throughout the United States and the Caribbean. Mr. Ballester has received numerous honors for his artistic work and has exhibited widely in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. His work is in numerous private and public collections.

 

Sonia Barnett – Jamaica

As a child born in the West Indies and raised in the United States, Sonia loves to paint, draw, and sketch scenes of people, island houses, and palm trees. An artist without formal training, Ms. Barnett’s painting style is evolving as she continues to be inspired by images of her present surroundings which currently include jazz musicians and abstract scenes that engage viewers on a more intimate level. Her work has been exhibited for over 9 years in several galleries in all five boroughs of New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ms. Barnett was an exhibitor at CaFA Fair Barbados 2012, held at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Center, Barbados.

 

Alberte Bernier - Haiti

Alberte Bernier was born in Haiti and currently resides in New York City. She received her B.A. from City College of NY and a Masters degree from New York University. Her training has continued at the venerable Art Students League and numerous other workshops in NY and abroad. In her words, “Painting, to me, represents a profound source of revitalization and freedom as well as my desire to convey human emotion and fantasy. Rather than limit viewers to a deliberate message, my work offers a wheel of imagination and a very personal way for me to express beauty and sensitivity. I have explored various mediums: canvas, board, fabric, driftwood, oil, acrylic, charcoal, pastel and mixed media. I am a member of Chashama, a not for profit organization whose central purpose is to keep artists in New York City by providing affordable studio space. Currently, my studio is located at the Brooklyn Army Terminal.”

 

Nicolle Blackwood – Jamaica

Nicolle Blackwood is a Jamaican-born artist from Kingston.  From the tender age of 8, drawing was her passion.  She attended Obsestan Prep, and then St. Hugh's High School where her work received several awards and wide recognition.  Nicolle received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Edna Manley College.  One of the people who have always been a source of inspiration is her uncle Paul Blackwood, who is a world renowned painter.  Paul Blackwood encouraged and inspired her to continue in her chosen career path. She first exhibited with him at the age of 14.  Since then Nicolle has participated in solo exhibitions and group exhibitions in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean with Paul Blackwood. She is currently also creative director of the fashion line Nicolle Nish, based in Kingston, Jamaica.

 

Rasheed Boodhoo – Barbados

I started my career as an artist in the early 70’s, being very active in the art scene into the 80’s, until the tragic death of a friend…..Some twenty years later Nigel Pierre got me back into painting. I took up Photography in 2007 and began my journey to become a photo artist {an artist painting with the camera]. With in that year I entered NIFCA winning two Bronze medals. In 2008 I was part of four shows held in Queens Park Gallery, three shows at The Barbados Art Council, one at Gallery of Caribbean Art. NIFCA in 2008 was a big success for me, winning Bronze, Silver and Gold medals, taking away the best black and white photo and the most improved photographer of the year awards. In 2009 to 2012 I was very busy with group shows in Russia, Canada, London and Barbados, also a one man show at the Errol Barrow Center.  My style of making images, to me is more of the artist in me than that of a photographer .Give a camera to any one and they can take a photo but not everyone can create an image, I try to bring to you photography that is art and that’s all.


David Boothman – Trinidad & Tobago

David Boothman, a celebrated artist/musician from Trinidad and Tobago, has been involved in the arts for over thirty-five years. He has performed extensively at international jazz and Caribbean music festivals. Boothman is founder of Caribbean Art Jazz Ensemble (“CAJE”) and founder/director of Caribbean Arts Central. An accomplished visual artist, he is an Honors Graduate of Pratt Institute in New York. As a composer, artist, musician and educator, he has received numerous awards for arts-in-education, and multi-media art productions in Trinidad and the US. Boothman’s work in the fields of arts, education, and performance qualifies him as a cultural engineer, creating and bridging traditional and contemporary cultural modalities towards the refinement of the Caribbean identity. He is considered to be the “Artists’ Artist.”


Kwame Brathwaite - Barbados

Born in New York of Barbadian parentage, Kwame Brathwaite has been considered the ever-present "photo-documentarian" of the Black Arts & Culture movement, the "keeper of the images." While earning a living as a fashion, commercial and entertainment photographer his primary interest has been the recording of the history of the African Diaspora both politically and culturally. Kwame formerly served as national president of The National Conference of Artists and until June 30, 2010 served as the Executive Director of the National Conference of Artists New York, Inc. for six years. Kwame is the creator and spearhead of NCA’s Department of Communications and Education which encompasses their “Black Arts & Culture USA” cable TV show that broadcasts in New York, including all five boroughs, Mt. Vernon and Atlanta, GA. His photographs have appeared in publications on five continents, in the U.S., Europe, Africa, Japan and South America. Magazines as diverse as Allure, B.E.T. Weekend Magazine, Black Diaspora, Cosmopolitan, Essence, Everybody’s Magazine, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Glamour, JET, People, Time, T V Guide, Vanity Fair, as well as Japan’s AdLib, England’s Blues & Soul, Nigeria’s, NewBreed and East Africa’s Flamingo and African Parade. Kwame's over 50 years of photography is currently being catalogued and preserved by The Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture in New York, the world's pre-eminent institution for the preservation of Black history.


Patricia Brintle - Haiti

Self-taught artist Patricia Brintle was born in Haiti and immigrated to the United States in 1964.  Although she has made the U.S. her residence, her colorful style reflects her native land. Her works on the Holocaust are on permanent display at the Holocaust Center of Temple Judea in New York and are used as teaching tools for visitors.  One of her religious works, The First Mother, travelled with the Black Madonna Exhibit which made its debut at the famed National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York and toured museums throughout the United States. One of her paintings hangs in the permanent collection of Albert Schweitzer Institute in Hamden, Connecticut, and her images have been published in both secular and religious periodicals.


Ras Ishi Butcher – Barbados

Ras Ishi Butcher burst onto the international art scene in 1992when he was selected winner of the Medal D’Orat the Caribbean and Latin American Biennale of Painting, held in Santo Domingo. In 1997, Ras Ishi completed post-graduate studies in fine art at the prestigious University of Superior Studies (ISA) in Havana, Cuba. His work has been published and discussed in several publications such as “Barbadian Art: What Kind of Mirror Image?” by Cummins, Thompson and Whittle, “Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century” by Professor Richard Powell, and is represented in numerous public and private collections across the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe.

 

Ras Bongo Congo I – Barbados

Since his conversion to the Rastafari faith in 1978, Ras Bongo Congo I has augmented his early training as a stonemason with a new found consciousness and has become one of the leading sculptors in Barbados today. 1992 saw Ras Bongo join with painter Ras Jahaziel Tafari for the ground- breaking exhibition “Let My People Go” at Queens Park Gallery in Bridgetown.  Ras Bongo Congo is a multiple Gold Award winner in Barbados’ National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (“N1FCA”) and his hardwood creations have been exhibited frequently in the United States and Europe.


Charles Dey - Jamaica

“As a child, I used to draw on open spaces: tiny shreds of paper, bedroom walls. I’d wake up, chasing stories all around me: the bustle of the busy open market; the tiny cloud of dust that left the road; the constant flow of people passing by me – the sunlight pouring in to greet the morning. My work is my reflection of these moments: life that I have witnessed over time. I thrive in peeling back the hidden layers, filling in life’s movement as it whispers. I get inspired searching for the root – those elements that seem to go unnoticed. This is my foundation as a painter and in my larger vision as an artist. Most of what I paint comes from traditions: days I spent exploring life in my birthplace in Accra, Ghana and my mother’s country in the enclaves of Montego Bay, Jamaica; the streets I walk down now in urban cities – people that I meet along the way.”


Minerva Diaz – Puerto Rico

Minerva Diaz was born in New York City of Puerto Rican parents in 1966. Prior to her artistic journey, she was a member of District Council 9 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trade before becoming an operating engineer at ABC/Disney for 17 years. From 2003 she travelled throughout the US for 6 years as a road producer and product specialist in the automotive industry. Since 2008 when she embraced her art, she has created works that feature an eclectic array of subjects including American history, pop culture, family settings, United Nations peace efforts and awareness, as well as health and environmental issues. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US and abroad. She has the unique achievement of having 2 US Presidents sign her work, President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton. In 2009 she attended the 62nd Annual United Nations NGO/DPI Conference in Mexico City as a delegate for the NY Metropolitan Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolence. The Center and their partners International Communications Association, have since appointed Ms. Diaz Director of the International Artists for Peace and World Harmony Initiative.


Minna Dunn – Barbados

Minna Dunn was born and raised on Long Island in the household of her parents with their roots in Barbados. She presents three generations of art, antique collecting and appreciation. Minna met master artist Frank Frazier in 1992 and this meeting has turned into an unbelievable art journey. The last 8 years with artist Ernani Silva has provided opportunities to develop an international appreciation for art. The outcome has produced visual works of art using acrylic paint and mixed media collage on paper. Women’s clothing, sisterhood and unity have been the theme often seen in her artwork.


Eljodii – Barbados

Eljodii represents Joan Dianne Walcott and Ellon Thomas Lewis. Eljodii was established two years ago and produced “Bold Terra Rosa Ceramic-Sculptures-One of a Kind”. These unique and innovative sculptures gave Eljodii the opportunities to showcase at BMEX 2011, the Caribbean Craft and Gift Show, and build Bronze and Granite stone sculptures at the 12th China Changchun Sculpture Symposium. Walcott and Lewis presented participated in CaFA Fair Barbados 2012 and held their first solo exhibition in April 2012.

Espacio 461 – Puerto Rico

 

Representing painters:

 

Dionisio Blanco – Puerto Rico

 

Rigoberto Pelaez – Puerto Rico

 

Zoanne Evans – Barbados (for “Kids In Action”)

Zoanne Evans has been writing and illustrating her work since the tender age of 7.  Since the age of fourteen, Zoanne has won several local literary competitions, including first prize in three categories of the Irving Burgie Awards.  At age sixteen, she received an honorable mention at the 1999 Inaugural Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Awards, and the 2006 UNICEF Award at NIFCA. She is currently teaches Technical Writing and Academic Writing at United West Indies Cave Hill Campus.

 

Bill Grace – Barbados

Bill is a graduate of Acadia University, with studies at University of Valencia, Nova Scotia College of Art, and Skidmore College. He currently teaches at the Barbados Community College. His work has been featured in “Contemporary Ceramics” by Susan Peterson, “Art in Barbados” by Cummins, Thompson and Whittle, “Ceramic Monthly” and “Select” magazine. He has illustrated in several books and appeared in numerous catalogs. His multi-dimensional creations in coral, stone, glass, and clay have been commissioned by religious institutions:  the U.S. Embassy in Barbados and the Barbados Government, and as gifts to Heads of State, including former United States President Bill Clinton.


Grupo Alejandro Alfonso – Puerto Rico

 

Editor of Latin American Art

 

Representing artists:

 

Frank Andujar – Puerto Rico

 

Jorge Checo – Dominican Republic

 

Roberto Gorki - Cuba

 

Carlos Santiago – Puerto Rico

 

Guru (David McClean) – Barbados

Guru holds a Masters Diploma in Fine Art from Scranton University and leapt into the public consciousness in 2011 with his groundbreaking exhibition themed around local Barbadian character and folk hero King Dyal. His wonderful suite of paintings, sculpture, and installations was critically acclaimed, and one of his installations won The Central of Barbados Purchase award in that year’s Independence Arts Festival. His work is also part of the Barbados National Art Collection.


Carl E.A Hazlewood - Guyana

Carl E. Hazlewood, born in Guyana, South America, has been an exhibiting artist since childhood. He is also a writer and curator currently living in Brooklyn, NY. An honors graduate of Pratt Institute and Hunter College – CUNY, Mr. Hazlewood received further post graduate training at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Brooklyn Museum Art School. The co-founder of Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, NJ, he has taught at New Jersey City University and other institutions. Currently associate editor for Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, (Duke University) he has written for many other periodicals, including Flash Art International, ART PAPERS Magazine, and NY Arts Magazine. Since 1984 he has organized numerous curatorial projects for Aljira such as ’Modern Life’ (co-curated with Okwui Enwezor). Hazlewood’s project, ‘Current Identities, Recent Painting in the United States,’ was the US prize-winning representation at the ‘Bienal International de Pintura,’ Cuenca, Ecuador 1994. As an Independent curator he has organized exhibitions for The Nathan Cummings Foundation, NY; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Hallwalls, NY; Artists Space, NY; P.S.122, NY, among other venues.


Ras Ilix Heartman – Barbados

Ras Ilix Heartman, wood sculptor and farmer, was born in Barbados. Before exhibiting his sculpture at the 1994 "In The Spirit Festival" at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, Ras Ilix exhibited at the Third Havana Biennial in Cuba.  Since then his work has been exhibited frequently at numerous exhibitions in Barbados and in the U.S.  His sculpture Melchizedek was awarded "Best In Show" at the 1997 Black History Month Exhibition held at New York’s Hintersteiner Gallery in Washington Heights.  His 2012 one man show received critical acclaim at the Queen’s Park Gallery in Barbados.


Jamal Ince – Barbados

Jamal Ince holds a BFA from Pratt Institute and a MS Ed. from Long Island University. His work has been exhibited widely in New York and is part of many private collections. In 2010 he received the Michael Kaye Award for Outstanding Art Educator. In describing his creative process he states, “In my work I have endeavored to create a mosaic that weaves culture and music together on the canvas.”


Judy Layne-Banks – Barbados

Barbadian Judy Layne-Banks is a batik artist whose textile works of art have been modeled at fashion shows in Barbados and across the Caribbean. Several of her works have been purchased by the Government of Barbados as gifts for visiting dignitaries. In 1992 she won a scholarship to Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts where she earned her BFA with Honors in Fibers and Art Education. Her work can be found in the United West Indies Erdiston Teacher’s Training College as part of the collection of Barbados National Hero, Sir Hugh Springer.


Neville Legall - Barbados

An accomplished painter and photographer, Oluyemi Legall received his art education at the Barbados Community College and the Detroit Jazz Centre Artistic Exchange Programme, under the tutelage of Harold Neal and Dr. Andrew Manier. A veteran of numerous exhibitions in his native Barbados, Oluyemi has also shown his art in the U.S., Canada, and the Third Havana Biennial. In December 1995, his paintings were part of Barbados Contemporary Art Exhibit, 479 Gallery, Soho, NYC, and in February 1996 part of a group show held at Ifetayo Cultural Center, Brooklyn, NY. Oluyemi's elegantly colorful interpretations of Barbadian life have continued to be in demand by local and international collectors alike. Over the past 2 decades his paintings have been exhibited annually in Barbados, as well as North Carolina, New York City, Miami -FL, and Salzburg-Austria. A holder of several awards and distinctions in National Art Exhibitions, Oluyemi's work is held in private collections in Europe, North America, and the Caribbean, as well as the collections of Barbados Government House, the Barbados Tourism Authority, and the Inter American Development Bank.


Daniel Lind-Ramos – Puerto Rico

Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist and 3 dimensional designer, was educated at his native University of Puerto Rico, New York University and L’Ecole des Beaux Arts (atelier Antonio Segui), Paris France. His prize winning paintings have been honored with multiple First Prizes in Puerto Rico’s Art Salons; the Arana Fellowship for travel and study in Paris, France; and represented Puerto Rico at the 2010 World Festival of Black Art in Dakar, Senegal, Africa. He has exhibited widely at galleries and institutions in the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, and the US. Daniel Lind-Ramos’ work is represented in the permanent collections of Museum of Latin-American Art, Long Beach, California and the Contemporary Museum of Art, San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is currently a Humanities Professor at the University of Puerto Rico.


Norma Lithgow – Honduras

A native of Honduras, Ms. Lithgow received her early training at the Academy of San Vincent Paul.  She came to New York City to study fashion at French's Fashion Academy and went on to Spain to study art at the Academia de Bellas Artes. Ms. Lithgow’s wonderfully expressive “Jazz Series” paintings have been shown at New York’s 2003 and 2004 JVC Jazz Festivals and have won her an enthusiastic following ever since. Her creations are in private and public collections across the U.S. and Latin America.


Philip Moore - Guyana

Philip Moore was born in 1921 in the Corentyne region of Guyana. Honored regionally and internationally for both his painting and sculpture, his seminal work has to be the controversial 1763 Monument, unveiled May 23, 1976, to mark Guyana’s 10th year of Independence. During the 1970’s Philip Moore was invited to be Artist in residence at such prestigious US Universities as Princeton and Rutgers. From 1970-75 he served as Art Director of the Heritage Foundation, New Brunswick, New Jersey and taught at the Trenton. A significant collection of his artwork is part of the Guyana National Collection, Castellani House, Georgetown, Guyana, and is represented in several other institutional collections, including The Baltimore Museum of Art, MD. Philip Moore passed away in 2012 at the ripe old age of 92 years in his native Corentyne.


Carlton Murrell – Barbados

Carlton began his painting career at 18, inspired by the landscape of his native Barbados and eventually immigrating to the Capital City of Art – New York.  While there, Murrell was awarded a scholarship to pursue advanced studies at the Art Students League.  He later attended the Pan American School of Fine Art and Pel’s School of Commercial Art and Illustration. He has exhibited in museums and educational institutions, as well as numerous galleries throughout the United States. His works hang in permanent collections of Carver Federal Savings Bank, the Copper Corporation of Chile, South America, Howard University, and the Central Bank of Barbados. Mr. Murrell has received numerous awards, prizes and citations.


NaLa - Barbados

He is an artist on canvas, page, screen and stage. Educated at Harrison College in Barbados, he graduated with B.A Hons. in Literature in English from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus in 1995. A founding member of the Cave Hill Theatre Workshop, he acquired his skill experientially and through workshops with the likes of the late Earl Warner, Clairmont Taitt, and Charles Alden Knight of Cuba. Coming to the end of the 1990’s Nala established himself as a theatre artiste in his own right and his varied and wide-ranging skills have afforded him the opportunity to work with major theatre interests in his native Barbados, other parts of the Caribbean and as far afield as Senegal. As an artist Nala has tended to exhibit privately (Dream The First and Dream The Second being his two largest exhibitions). He has been part of several group exhibitions held by the National Cultural Foundation. Nala’s paintings like his performance work are edgy, uncomfortable and amusing.


Rafza Nehaul - Barbados

Born in Guyana and educated both in Guyana and the United Kingdom, Rafza Nehaul nee Rahaman taught Integrated Science, Biology and Mathematics in London, Oxford, and Barbados. Rafza has lived in Barbados for the last 35 years and for only the past 10 years has devoted her time to her passion. The essence of her art is based on using readily available materials with concentration on recycling. Having come from an education background, Rafza reveals an essential part of her art process, which is to pass on “use what you have” and to encourage everyone to indulge in some form of creativity. “It is the journey in trying that makes us who we are.”


Ademola Olugebefola – US Virgin Islands

Ademola began his professional career as a bassist, playing with several small ensembles throughout the New York metropolitan area during the late 50s and early 60s. He retired from playing music in the late sixties to devote full time to the visual sciences. However, Ademola has continually incorporated musical ideas and theories in his extensive body of work over the last four decades in hundreds of exhibitions at major American museums, universities and cultural institutions as well as internationally. Born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Dr. Olugebefola has lectured and participated in forums at leading universities, museums and cultural institutions in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. He is a highly respected cultural activist and renowned Harlem artist whose art and career papers are in the permanent collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Hatch Billops Archives, Howard University, and scores of other well-respected American institutions.


Lenbert Pearson – Jamaica

Born in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Lenbert’s paintings, sculpture and handcrafted items are availabe in galleries and gift shop across the Caribbean. He currently lives in Kingston, Jamaica and his creations can be found in private collections across the Caribbean, Europe and the United States.


Marcel Pinas - Suriname

Born in Suriname, South America, Marcel attended the Edna Manley School for the Arts in Jamaica, West Indies. He is a member of the Ndjukas, a group of Maroons who never surrendered to colonial powers. The work in this exhibition is about past experiences. It deals with the destruction of the Ndjuka culture.


Ras Akyem I Ramsay – Barbados

A graduate of Jamaica’s Edna Manley School of Art, Ras Akyem I is a veteran exhibitor throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, England, and the U.S.  In 1996 Ras Akyem's paintings won the Gold Medal at the Third Biennial of Caribbean and Latin American Painting, held in Santo Domingo, and was part of the collective submission by Barbadian artists which won the Country Gold Medal. During 1995-1997 Ras Akyem successfully completed postgraduate studies at Cuba’s prestigious art academy, the University of Superior Arts (ISA).  His work has been published and discussed in such publications as “Barbadian Art: What Kind of Mirror Image?” and “Caribbean Art”, by Veerle Poupeye. In 1998 he was awarded the Barbados Service Star in that year’s Barbados Independence Honors. Ras Akyem I is the recipient of the 2012 Caribbean Luminary of the Arts Award.


Steve Reid - Barbados

Steve Reid is a University of the West Indies trained agriculturist who has worked within the agricultural and financial services sectors for over two decades. Pottery making, however, has always appealed to his creative spirit and was brought to light in the early ’90s with displays at the Bridgetown Market and at the Barbados Crop Over Festival. His work often shows plant life and natural features of our environment, and carries an ancient spirit in a unique, contemporary style.

 

Arlette St. Hill - Barbados

Arlette St.Hill was born in Barbados and is a graduate of the Barbados Community College, Erdiston Teacher’s College, The Jamaica School of Art, and the Teachers’ Technical Training Institute, Madras - India. Arlette has a degree in Art education, diploma in Curriculum Design and the Development of Instructional Materials and certificates in Multimedia Production and Educational Text Book Publishing. Her artwork explores a variety of mediums and techniques which include Acrylics, Oil Pastel, Markers, Pen and Ink, Painting, Drawing, Print Making and Collage. Arlette exhibits in Barbados, and has exhibited in Jamaica, Boston, Washington, New York, Cuba, North Carolina, Miami, London and France.


Nikolas Sealy – Barbados

Nikolas Sealy is an imaginative creator from a long line of educators. This self taught Barbadian artist expresses himself mainly in graphite pencil and sometimes ventures into coloured pencil when he creates his surreal pieces and landscapes. Nikolas specializes in Photo Realistic drawings of people and pet portraits from photographs. Early in his career Nikolas has already received accolades from NIFCA where he garnered three bronze awards in 2011 and one bronze and one silver award in 2012. This self actualized artist has a craft that is still emerging.

 

Lisa Smith-Fields – Barbados

A graduate of the Barbados Community College's Division of Fine Art, Lisa has also successfully completed courses in Ceramics and Serigraphy with Indigenous Potteries, Karoche Limited and Barbados National Cultural Foundation. Since then, Lisa has exhibited both her pottery and fine art at several important shows in Barbados, including the Art Collection Foundation Exhibition, the 1994 Findings Crop-Over exhibition, and the annual Young Contemporaries Exhibitions, 1994 -1998. Subsequently, Lisa’s work has been exhibited in New York City and London throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, gaining admirers and collectors along the way.


Ava Tomlinson – Jamaica

Jamaican painter Ava Tomlinson earned her BFA from Pratt Institute, and received additional training at the venerable New York City Art Students League. Her work has been exhibited widely in New York and is part of several private and public collections. In her words, “My work is a rich mixture of color, form and light, rooted in an American/Jamaican/European culture.”


Abishag Voundi – Martinique

Born in France of a mother from Martinique and a father from Cameroon, both musicians; she lives between Martinique, Montreal and the Ivory-Coast. She holds a cultural mediation diploma from the University of Bordeaux, France, and a mural art diploma from the Beaux Art Institute of Abidjan. She is a multi media artist using mosaic, tapestry, acrylic, and recycling objects. Abishag’s works have been exhibited in the Caribbean, Europe, major cities in North and South America, and Africa.

 

Alfred Weekes – Barbados

Alfred Weekes has been creating wire sculptures since the mid 1970s and his work has been exhibited widely throughout the Caribbean and North America. In 1993 Mr. Weekes was judged BEST IN SHOW at the 1993 Manchester Art Association Show in Manchester, Connecticut. In August 1998, Mr. Weekes' first one-man exhibition, “In Person", consisting entirely of colorful relief sculptures, received critical acclaimatBrooklyn Moon Café in New York City. This new direction has continued to evolve and his sculpture has become almost painterly in rendition. Mr. Weekes’ work is held in private collections throughout the Caribbean, Europe, and the U.S.


David Wilson – Dominica

David G. Wilson was born on the island of Dominica and currently lives in NYC.

“I am primarily a self-taught artist who, for the past forty years, has endeavored to depict, on a two dimensional support, an image that transcends the third dimension within our three dimensional terrestrial space. I create or interpret recognizable and plausible images and project therein a hitherto unseen alternative reality that is mutually inclusive, coexists with and is congruent with that recognizable and realistic source image. My goal is to transcend the third dimension in painting and sculpture and create what may constitute a visual experience of a parallel universe, all within our recognizable three dimensional terrestrial space. I am of the opinion that only through art can we visually experience another dimension beyond our three dimensional terrestrial space. That is my ultimate artistic objective.”