This cohort of artists represents a diverse selection of individual perspectives within the contemporary Jamaican art space.  Stemming from different backgrounds, some of these artists are graduates of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, where they benefited from a fine arts education guided by some of Jamaica’s foremost artists and art educators. Some have emerged from the University of Technology’s Caribbean School of Architecture where they received a rigorous education within the discipline. Others are primarily self-taught, and educated in disciplines that are seemingly far removed from art such as Bio-chemistry, Psychology, Dentistry and Political Science.

These artists each prefer different mediums and visual styles, and of course the similarities and differences  among them abound. The principal uniting factor among them is their acute awareness of their existential realities within this increasingly globalised and technologically immersed world. These artists are conscious of the pertinent socio-political issues within their local, regional and international communities and much of their works directly confront these topical issues. Through figurative representation, these artists explore themes and concepts that are relevant to contemporary Jamaican, and Caribbean, realities including: identity (both individual and collective), inclusivity and marginalization, cultural diversity and plurality, societal institutions, political dynamics, as well as their idiosyncratic perceptions of the human experience.

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In addition to figurative works, these artists also engage in abstraction which enables them to transcend mere descriptive representations of their human realities and ruminate on dense metaphysical concepts. The influence of abstraction is evident even in their figurative works, which suggests that this cohort shares a certain visual language that is more inventive, stylistic and transformative than it is naturalistic.

The cohort shares an awareness of and appreciation for Jamaican art history and each artist is able to orient herself within this history, albeit in starkly different positions. When asked about their artistic influences, the artists named some celebrated figures of a past generation including: Albert Huie, Barrington Watson, Osmond Watson, Karl Parboosingh, Christopher Gonzales and Gene Pearson. They also mentioned artists who were inspired by that older generation and who would have directly influenced their own generation such as Afrikan (Omari Ra), K. Khalfani Ra, Phillip Thomas, Richard Hall, Patrick Waldemar and Garfield Morgan. Furthermore, the cohort listed among their influences some contemporary artists, not much older than themselves, namely Kimani Beckford, Taj Francis, Richard Nattoo, Brianna McCarthy, and Matthew McCarthy.

Finally, these artists featured in “Contemporary Vernacular” represent an important conjunction between history and the present, i.e. their works are simultaneously anchored in a historical perspective while also appropriately reflective of contemporary realities.

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View exhibition e-catalogue here.

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