Last Sundays, May 28, 2017 – Feat. Tsunami Scarecrow, Wayne McGregor and Friends, Jamaica Biennial 2017, and Arts in the Park

The National Gallery of Jamaica is pleased to present a special edition of its Last Sundays programme for May 28, 2017, which features Tsunami Scarecrow, a short film on David Marchand, which starts at 1:00 pm, followed by a musical performance by Wayne McGregor and Friends, which starts at 1:30 pm. Visitors will also have the opportunity to view the Jamaica Biennial 2017, which closes on that day. The Last Sundays programme for May 28 will run concurrently at two locations, at the National Gallery of Jamaica itself and at Devon House, where the National Gallery is on that day participating in the Arts in the Park programme of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and where part of the Jamaica Biennial 2017 can also be seen. The programme at Devon House includes a round table discussion on the Jamaica Biennial 2017 which will take place at the East Lawn Gazebo from 2:30 to 4:00 pm.

Directed, written and produced by Chloe Walters-Wallace, Tsunami Scarecrow, shot from 2010-2014 in Runaway Bay Jamaica, is a short documentary on the “controversial, fluorescent, comical, extreme, kinky and sacrosanct,” David Marchand. Marchand, who recently passed away, was an infamous fine artist who seemingly veered on the border of mania and apt intelligence. He was at once a starving artist and self-proclaimed prophet from the lineage of the biblical King David, patiently awaiting the arrival of a tsunami he foresaw in a vision destined to destroy the island of Jamaica in one fell swoop.

Musical entertainment will be provided by the band Wayne McGregor and Friends. Lead singer Wayne McGregor, is a songwriter and guitarist who has played for many years on the local music scene. He has been a fixture in the local rock and blues live music scene since the 1990s. Joining McGregor will be Andre ‘Spyda’ Dennis, long-time session musician and keyboardist for internationally acclaimed reggae band Raging Fyah, and veteran percussionist and jazz musician Mbala Mgobo.

The critically acclaimed Jamaica Biennial 2017 opened in late February 2017 at three locations: the National Gallery of Jamaica on the Kingston waterfront, Devon House in New Kingston and National Gallery West in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay. Featuring a diverse mix of locally and overseas based artists, some of them well known and others emerging or new, the 2017 edition of the Jamaica Biennial reflects the vitality of the Jamaican art scene and the complex global dynamics that shape the art of the Caribbean region today. As was first done in 2014, the Jamaica Biennial features six specially invited international artists, from the Caribbean and its Diaspora—Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Raquel Paiewonsky, Marcel Pinas, Nadia Huggins at the National Gallery of Jamaica; Andrea Chung at Devon House; and David Gumbs at National Gallery West—and the exhibition also includes two special tributes to noted Jamaican artists—Alexander Cooper and Peter Dean Rickards, both of which can be viewed at the National Gallery of Jamaica. The exhibition includes work in conventional media and styles as well as more experimental work in digital and other contemporary media, including several mixed media installations, and it is the largest and arguably the most ambitious such exhibition staged to date by the National Gallery.

Arts in the Park is a production of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport. Arts in the Park and consists of a series of arts and entertainment events in which the National Gallery of Jamaica, the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission are also partners. The Arts in the Park programme on May 28  multi-spatial visual art installation that will involve exhibitions, live performances, demonstrations, fashion, and discussion co-presented by the partners in the programme. The panel on the Jamaica Biennial will feature Seph Rodney (Art Critic, Hyperallergic, NYC), Christopher Cozier (Artist, Director Alice Yard, Trinidad), Natalie Urquhart (Executive Director, National Gallery of the Cayman Islands), Ebony G. Patterson (Artist, Professor of Painting and Mixed Media, University of Kentucky), Petrona Morrison (Artist and former director Edna Manley College), and Omari Ra (Artist, Head, Painting Department, Edna Manley College), and the discussion will be chaired by Veerle Poupeye (Executive Director, National Gallery of Jamaica)

On May 28, the National Gallery of Jamaica will on May 28 be open from 11 am to 6 pm, or 2 hours longer than for the regular Last Sundays, to facilitate last moment visits of the Biennial. The Arts in the Park programme at Devon House runs from 12 noon to 6 pm. Both events are free and open to the public.