Laura Facey - DI HANGING OF PHIBBAH, 2012, cedar, rope, iron, 60"

"Today I will be sharing how life can shift and boundaries can change, how I’ve created a foundation for myself so that I no longer feel enslaved but am free from a past that once held me — how as I continue to let go, I grow spiritually and become stronger...

At six years old I was inappropriately touched. At nineteen, I was raped. At thirty-three, I was raped again.  At forty, weighing ninety pounds, I felt overwhelmed by life...

B...

Omar Victor Diop, Nanny and Quao, Jamaica (1720), from the 'Liberty' series, 2016 | Courtesy © Omar Victor Diop / MAGNIN-A, Paris

Senegalese artist Omar Victor Diop inserts himself in the series Liberty: A Universal Chronology of Black Protest to explore the defining moments of historical revolt and black struggle in Africa and the diaspora. His images feature key freedom fighters like Jamaica's own Queen Nanny (c. 1686 – c. 1755), and her brother Quao, who fled enslavement to foun...

ESSAY

We waxed nostalgic about a sign seen at the recent Art and Antiques Fair for the Bolivar Gallery. The Bolivar opened in 1964 (or 1966) and since you can still visit - by appointment only since 2016 - we're happy to celebrate it as Jamaica's oldest and longest running "gallery". But the sign also serves to remind that of the 50+ art galleries that have opened in Jamaica since Independence, less than ten remain. 

The sale of works in Jamaica is still very informal as artists sell their works d...

AGORA    

Kingston, JA, October 23, 2018 -The Orange Park Trust (OPT), has made public the structure and plans for the development of the Orange Park, St Thomas home (1968-2016) of master painter Barrington Watson as an attraction, and has announced its intent to commence a subscription rights offering pursuant to which it plans to raise approximately JMD 500,000,00.00 through the distribution of preference shares.

In a presentation at Gallery Barrington, William ‘Bill’ Clarke, shared th...

Nakazzi Tafari, Glass mask with driftwood locks, September 2018. Photo: Nakazzi Tafari

A piece from Nakazzi's latest series: "I am evolving my process and pushing to capture a completely seamless organic aesthetic," she says. "At the same time, as I experiment with all kinds of materials, I am also striving for more permanence and durability of the work without losing the ephemeral quality that expresses both the transience and fragility of life."  

Art historian, Veerle Poupeye, Ph...

THE INDEPENDENCE ISSUE   

The growth of interest in art as an investment has long been met by resistance from members of the art community who oppose the aesthetic value and symbolic meaning of art becoming a “speculative object” (Velthius and Coslor 2012) and from the financial community which hesitates to recognize art as a valid asset class citing the market's lack of liquidity, transparency, and measurability. 

We would do well to shrug off that Renaissance Ideal carry-over of the patrona...

AGORA

THIS IS HUGE. From a field of450 works by 210 artists from 14 countries, curated by five historians* exploring 16th-21st century art of the Afro-Atlantic territories Jamaica's Barrington Watson's (1931-2016) Conversation is chosen for the catalogue cover and promotion imagery.

Prepared over three years of research, the exhibition  Histórias Afro-Atlânticas [Afro-Atlantic Stories]  in an unprecedented collaborative initiative, shows --- in two Brazil venues: the São Paulo Art Museum...

AGORA

We can count on one hand, the number of block and concrete galleries in Jamaica with sustained

commercial practice. In the absence of commercial venues, artists no longer produce for gallery shows but for fairs, pop-ups, shared-spaces and collaboratives.

While our direct-sales art market culture has long defied the traditional gallery model of artist discovery and promotion, gallerists are exploring new ways of doing business and 

challenging traditional ideas of...

AGORA --- It may be an indication of things to come that Melinda Brown was back on the rock. For Brown, an Australian native - had the reputation of making the unheard of become material and for showing us things we never knew we wanted. Some will recall her uptown-meets-downtown studio and salon at the corner Church and Barry Streets which she established after moving here from the Bambora House in New York, NY. Most will remember her Pechon Street ROKTOWA project which explored various program...

In the artephemera®com office hangs a special gallery exhibition poster which reminds us daily that --- despite the prevailing notion of social and institutional recognition determining whether or not you are 'somebody' whose work is worthy of acknowledgement --- who we are is not as important nor as interesting as what we do. That said, our mission is to serve the vision of Karl "Parboo" Parboosingh (1923-1975) --- made clear in his speech at the opening of his last exh...

"Every time an artist dies, God lets them paint the sky so they can say goodbye."

There is something to that unattributed quote; for the night sky after Gene Pearson's death was grey, and damp and as dense as a mass of wet clay ready to be thrown. Pearson's death followed that of his former wife's, abstract artist Lady Jacqueline Hussey Pearson; and pioneering water-colourist  Dorothy Henriques Wells made her transition too this month, albeit more gently.We mourn their p...

The Jamaica Art Market Review supports the call for market transparency by providing a unique digital portal to the local creative economy. In so doing we enter a lane left clear by the erudites to inform, educate and facilitate artists', and private and institutional collectors' consideration of the value of Jamaican art. On occasion artephemera® will deviate from the Jamaican art market to share global market insight, as in the case of the Forever Rose crypto art project and the discovery...