Independent Curatorial Work
Aug 2013 - Present
The Tilting Axis Fellowship (August 2016 - August 2017)
Tilting Axis
Tilting Axis is a roving project conceptualized by ARC Magazine and the Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. It's main output is an annual conference that brings together art professionals and institutions (based or interested) in the Caribbean to share experiences and explore possibilities for partnership. Find more information on the fellowship here.
My research took me to Scotland (hosted by British Council Scotland, CCA Glasgow, Hospitalfield, Mother Tongue and David Dale Gallery), Grenada (hosted by Groundation Grenada), Barbados (hosted by Fresh Milk), Suriname (Tembe Art Studio) and Puerto Rico (Beta-Local). The host organisations acted as a base for identifying and documenting curatorial strategies within their organisations and elsewhere. Emphasis was given to those curatorial activities that take place outside of an exhibitionary context. Reports on the five trips are available here.
Video of a talk I gave at CCA Glasgow on the Fellowship and my practice. (Jan 27, 2017)
Hand-drawn fliers (made by Groundation Director Malaika Brooks Smith Lowe) for a Town Hall Lime, bringing together art practitioners in Grenada. The session was designed to build solidarity and encourage collaboration.
Tembe Art Studio in Suriname was founded by artist Marcel Piñas in 2009. The studio is located in Moengo, a Maroon community about 100 km from the capital, Paramaribo.
Representing Artists (RA) is a Barbados-based regional arts publication from the early 90s. I found the six existing issues in Fresh Milk's Colleen Lewis Reading Room and decided to digitize them for broader access. The issues are available here.
One of many discussion groups at Beta-Local. La Esquina, Beta's main space, is a library and working space in Old San Juan.
John Dunkley: Neither Day nor Night (May 2017- Jan 2018)
Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
This exhibition presents the work of John Dunkley (b. 1891, Savanna-la-Mar, Jamaica; d. 1947, Kingston), widely considered one of Jamaica’s most important historical artists. Neither Day nor Night includes paintings from the 1930s and ‘40s alongside a smaller selection of carved-wood and stone sculptures.
I was assistant curator, while then Associate Curator at PAMM, Diana Nawi was the lead on the project.
Paintings by John Dunkley; Banana Plantation (ca 1945), Back to Nature (1939), Diamond Wedding (1940). (L to R)
A Pendaaflex for the Future- Curatorial Residency (Sept - Oct 2015)
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Norway
Each year, three residents are selected based on nominations by an international panel of curators and museum professionals. I spent a month at HOK, doing research in the institution's archive. Based on that research, I was commissioned to develop a text on a specific exhibition or artistic project from HOK’s production of contemporary visual art, performance, and sound since 1969. I chose a 1971 computer art show called Impulse, as my subject.
The ambition of the Pendaflex for the Future programme is to collect different voices and methodologies in order to present an examination of the institution’s history in way that rethinks it by linking it to production and curatorial ideas elsewhere, then or now.
The sculpture garden at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter.
Searching for Impulse (1971) in the HOK archive.
Art student, Maria Toll's notes from "Babylon is Falling"- a lecture I gave as part of the Academy Lecture Series at the Art Academy in Oslo (Khio).
Jamaica Biennial 2014 (Dec 2014 - Mar 2015)
National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston
The National Gallery of Jamaica is the oldest and largest public art institution in the English-speaking Caribbean, and the Jamaica Biennial is the NGJ's flagship show. The 2014 exhibition included work by more than 100 artists from Jamaica, the Diaspora and the Caribbean region. It was also the first iteration to include multiple venues and artists from the broader Caribbean.
The exhibition was team curated, led by Executive Director Dr Veerle Poupeye. I co-ordinated the installation at Devon House, a nineteenth century Georgian mansion, as well as the hosting and installations of invited international artists (James Cooper, Blue Curry, Richard Mark Rawlins).
Bermudan artist James Cooper's installation at Devon House.
Laura Facey's Walking Tree on the lawns of Devon House.
London-based Bahamian artist Blue Curry's PARADISE.jpg on the corner of Orange St and Port Royal St in downtown Kingston.
Trajectories (July 2014)
Myers Fletcher & Gordon Attorneys-at-Law, Kingston
A three day exhibition in honour of the firm's 70th anniversary, installed on the vacant fifth floor of their downtown Kingston office building. It included work from MF&G's historically significant art collection, artists like Barrington Watson, Seya Parboosingh, Karl Parboosingh, Eugene Hyde, Kapo, Edna Manley, Milton George, GenePearson and Colin Garland. These were placed in conversation with the work of emerging artists- Leasho Johnson, Phillip Thomas, Deborah Anzinger, Marvin Bartley, Oneika Russell and Di-Andre C Davis.
Exhibition catalogues, featuring Barrington Watson's Two Women (1982) from the MF&G Collection.
Two visitors in Deborah Anzinger's installation.
Di-Andre C. Davis' What You Know Without Knowing gif installation.
Float (May - June 2014)
Transformer, Washington DC
A group show presenting the photography, sculpture, digital and mixed media work of four artists living and working in the Caribbean - Deborah Anzinger, Rodell Warner, Leasho Johnson, and Marlon James. The exhibition was the result of a partnership between Jamaican micro-gallery and experimental art space NLS Kingston, and DC art gallery Transformer.
The works presented redefine the boundaries assigned to them, positing a renegotiation of identity that is insistent on the recognition of the central role that “the margins” play in the making of our cosmopolitan present and future.
A recording of the accompanying panel discussion at the Museum of the Americas can be seen on the NLS Kingston YouTube page here.
Image courtesy of NLS Kingston
Image courtesy of NLS Kingston
Transforming Spaces (April 2014)
Hillside House, Nassau, the Bahamas
Transforming Spaces is an art festival in the Bahamas, organized around a series of ticketed bus tours that stop at a number of galleries across Nassau.
In 2014, TS celebrated its 10th year and invited three curators from across the region to partner with local galleries. I curated an exhibition at Antonius Roberts' Hillside House. The exhibition included work by Deborah Anzinger, Maria K Braga, John Cahall, Tyler Johnston, Jeffrey Menzies, Ruben Millares and Alberta & Nick Whittle.
Jeffrey Menzies' Floats
Deborah Anzinger's Common Ethical Experiences: legs in landscape thoughts in energy field Part 2
Giving a talk at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas as part of TS programming.
Projects at the National Gallery of Jamaica
Dec 2012 - Aug 2013
New Roots (July - Sept 2013)
Curated by the NGJ Curatorial Team
For more information on New Roots see the NGJ blog here.
Matthew McCarthy's I Took the Liberty of Designing One (Image courtesy of NGJ)
Varun Baker's Journey (Image courtesy of NGJ)
A section of Deborah Anzinger's installation (Image courtesy of NGJ)
Natural Histories (April - June 2013)
Co-curated by Nicole Smythe-Johnson & O'Neil Lawrence
For more information on Natural Histories see the NGJ blog here.
O'Neil Lawrence and I at the opening. (Image courtesy of Courtenay Williams)
Selection of Jamaican woods collected by the Public Work Department for Jamaica’s Great Exhibition of 1891. (Image courtesy of NGJ)
Everald Brown's The Bush Have Ears (1976) (Image courtesy of NGJ)
Shoshanna Weinberger Collection of Strangefruit (2012) (Image courtesy of NGJ)
Deborah Anzinger's Gone (2012). (Image courtesy of NGJ)
John Dunkley's Back to Nature (1939). (Image courtesy of NGJ)
National Biennial 2012 (Dec 2012 - March 2013)
Curated by the NGJ Curatorial Team
For more information on National Biennial 2012 see the NGJ blog here.
Esther Chin's Yistie (Image courtesy of NGJ)
A live performance accompanying Ebony G. Patterson's installation, The Observation (Bush Cockerel) — A Fictitious History (Image courtesy of Rodell Warner)
Installation shot (Image courtesy of NGJ)
