‘Narrative Evolutions’ Exhibition to Open Sunday May 28, 2023

The National Gallery of Jamaica is inviting you to the soft opening of the exhibition Narrative Evolutions on Sunday May 28, 2023 which takes a look at its recent acquisitions. Doors will be open from 10am – 2pm. Admission is free. 

The National Art Collection is a continuing narrative of developments in Jamaica’s social, economic and cultural life. The NGJ inherited the core of its collection from the Institute of Jamaica upon its inception in 1974 and the majority of its subsequent acquisitions have been made through generous donations from Collectors and Artists.

Narrative Evolutions is primarily constituted of donations received between 2018-2022 and will contextualise a selection of these acquisitions alongside previous acquisitions. The juxtaposition of these works illustrates the Gallery’s continuing mandate for its collection to comprehensively represent the evolving realities of Jamaica and its Diaspora. 

The exhibition includes new works by David Boxer, Leonard Daley, Albert Huie, Michael Lester, Ebony G. Patterson, Sylvester Stephens among others. These donations to the National Collection came from the following donors: Wayne and Myrene Cox, The David Boxer/Onyx Foundation and Jessica and Sebastian Ogden in memory of Annabella and Peter Proudlock.

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New Dates for Kingston Biennial – Pressure

The National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ) wishes to announce a new opening date for the Kingston Biennial: Pressure curated by David Scott, Nicole Smythe-Johnson, Wayne Modest and O’Neil Lawrence. The Kingston Biennial will now open on June 26^th 2022 and close on December 31^st 2022.  

As it has with art institutions around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the NGJ’s exhibition programming. It has made it impossible to meet previously set timelines – both for the NGJ as well as several of the participating artists in the Kingston Biennial. While the preparations for the exhibition are ongoing, the recently confirmed presence of the Delta and Mu variants of the COVID-19 virus in Jamaica also factored into the decision to change the opening date from the original December 12, 2021. 

Jonathan Greenland, Senior Director of the NGJ, in a statement. “With the evolving uncertainties of the pandemic, the decision was made to change dates for the exhibition in order to prioritize the safety of our staff, the artistic community and our public. The Kingston Biennial: Pressure is however our newest flagship exhibition; we remain committed to this exhibition for its potential to be a catalyst for the further exposure and development of Jamaican art both here and in the Jamaican diaspora.” 

David Scott, the exhibition’s lead curator on the exhibition’s theme “[W]hat is instructive about the Jamaican experience and the idiom of pressure is that it has always had a generative and dissenting quality about it. Pressure is a source of critical and creative counter-powers and creative oppositional activity. It is an inspiring human resource, and historically it has been deeply fertile ground for some of the most brilliant works of Jamaican cultural achievement.” 

Leading up to the opening of the Kingston Biennial: Pressure there will be several interactive online seminars including: The Cultural History of Art Institutions in Jamaica and the Sonic and Visual Lives of Pressure among others.

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Jamaica Jamaica! to Open on Sunday February 2, 2020

– How our music conquered the world.

The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports, the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ) and the Jamaica Music Museum in association with La Philharmonie de Paris are pleased to present the exhibition Jamaica, Jamaica!, which opens on February 2, 2020 and closes on June 28, 2020. Doors open at 11:00am and formalities begin at 3:00pm. We will also feature the DJ Iset Sankofa.

Initially launched at Philharmonie de Paris in 2017 and titled after the eponymous 1985 hit song by Brigadier “The General” Jerry, Jamaica, Jamaica! examines how the tiny Caribbean island of Jamaica has become an extraordinary force in the world heritage and history of music.

Jamaica, Jamaica! brings together rare memorabilia, photographs, visual art, audio recordings and footage unearthed from Jamaica’s best museums and most elusive collectors and studios, while collaborating with legendary local visual artists to convey the essence of a true Jamaican music experience.

Teeming with creativity and innovation, Jamaica has produced some of the major musical currents in today’s popular music landscape; yet, its rich history and diversity is often overshadowed by its most famous icon, reggae superstar Bob Marley. This exhibition aims at showcasing a broader vision that has allowed the world to know the island’s music, by digging deep into its past and present in search for the roots of “rebel music”, beyond the cliché and the postcard.

The most ambitious exhibition ever staged on the topic, Jamaica, Jamaica! celebrates the musical innovations born on the island in its specific historic and social contexts, unveiling the story behind the musical genres of kumina, revival, mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub and dancehall – as well as the impact of the local sound system culture, street culture, and visual arts on today’s global pop culture.

“What about the half/that’s never been told?”, Jamaican singer Dennis Brown wondered. Complete with interactive installations, events and panels throughout its tenure, Jamaica, Jamaica! seeks to address and pay homage to the untold half, thus explaining how and why, born from a tiny island scarred by slavery and colonialism, Jamaica’s music has been able to conquer the world.

Papa Screw – Black Scorpio Headquarters, 1985 Image: Beth Lesser

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS

• Interactive installations, an “operate it yourself” sound system and touch-screen riddim navigator.
• Dedicated web radio and app, “Radio Jamaica”.
• A true multimedium exhibition, Jamaica, Jamaica! mixes classic fine arts (Mallica “Kapo” Reynolds, Everald Brown, Sydney McLaren), contemporary art (Ebony Patterson, Matthew McCarthy, Leasho Johnson.), mural art (“Bones” Williams, Errol “Gideon” Reid, Ras Lava), photographs (Peter Dean Rickards, Beth Lesser, Arthur Gorson, Cookie Kinkead, Peter Simon), audio, video and musical artifacts – including equipment from Studio One, King Jammy’s and Randy’s studios, Peters Tosh’s M16 guitar, Count Ossie’s percussions, drum kits from the Skatalites and Sly and Robbie, and Hedley Jones’ guitar.

PROGRAMMES

• There will be a full range of programming, including film screenings, and artist and curator talks.
• The regular National Gallery Last Sunday programme on the last Sunday of every month continues. Each one will explore a different aspect of the exhibition.
• Special Language Group Tours. Free German, French, Japanese and Jamaican Language tours available by appointment.
• Children’s Musical Programming on Saturdays.

SECTIONS

 

The exhibition is articulated in six sections, each section focusing on a key moment or a specific aspect of Jamaican music.

All photos from an original exhibition presented at the Musée de la Musique – La Philharmonie de Paris. 

Exhibition view featuring the Skatalites Drum set

INTRODUCTION: Seeing Sounds, Hearing Images

A prelude and a synthesis, this introductory section juxtaposes two elements that have made Jamaican music unique: its secular aspect and its ritual aspect – by showcasing together iconic items of sound system culture (equipment, photographs, video), and spiritual musical instruments. This section will also feature a monumental series of portraits of Jamaican iconic music makers from all eras and musical styles – courtesy of downtown legends, mural artists Ras Lava, “Bones” Williams and Errol “Gideon” Reid.

1— Freedom Sounds

The musical heritages born from slavery are showcased in this historical room: from revival, kumina, and the maroons, all the way to Count Ossie’s drummers and nyabinghi music. This section incidentally examines how these ritual genres mixed up with local folk and (seemingly) more innocuous mento drew the blueprint of Jamaica’s own “rebel music.”

2— Voices of Independance

When founding members of The Skatalites met at Alpha Boys School, a revolution happened: for the first time, the music “from the streets” entered the musical spectrum. From a Jamaican blend of jazz to ska and its next embodiment, rock steady, these new sounds preceded reggae throughout the 1960s, echoing the island’s physical independence from England.

3— Studios: The Echo Chamber

Studio One Reproduction in Paris

As ska entered the picture, Jamaica’s music industry became a crucial part of daily life, intertwining music and social issues – as a subsection about cult movie “The Harder They Come” reminisces. This section is a voyage through Jamaica’s top studios over the years: from Studio One to the synthetic sounds of Sly and Robbie, via Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Black Ark, Randy’s, and King Jammys.

4— Get up, Stand up

At the beginning of the 1970s, Rasta philosophy seeped through the whole music fraternity, gathering more and more steam beyond the strict nyabinghi drummer circles. From then on, why would the freshly born reggae, also known as “roots music”, call on to Jamaican Pan African visionary Marcus Garvey and Ethiopian Emperor Hailé Sélassié? This section details who these two often-quoted figures are, and their everlasting presence in Jamaica’s popular music.

5 — Trench Town to the World

Bob Marley in his home-studio Tuff Gong, 1978. Image: Adrian Booth

A social experiment of communal living eventually scarred by political violence, Trenchtown’s tenement yards contributed to the musical destiny of Jamaica. Honouring Trenchtown’s greatest, this section explains how Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer brought reggae to the world from their humble beginnings in this West Kingston neighbourhood.

6 — Dancehall Stylee

Peter Dean Rickards – Bounty Killer

Following Bob Marley’s passing in 1981, Jamaica once again invented a new musical paradigm – a new genre called dancehall. Dancehall felt as if the country wanted to talk to itself again – by celebrating the sound system culture it created and had perfected over decades, and its bubbling visual, linguistic and graphic creativity. From the early days of dancehall culture to its most contemporary icons and movements, this last section showcases the visionary pioneer spirit born in Jamaica that global pop music has been tapping into – without always crediting its origins.

About the Curators

Sebastien Carayol, Independent Curator. Born and raised in France, Sebastien Carayol initially discovered Jamaican music through the power of Jamaican-English sound systems in London and developed his passion from this initial experience. His quest led him to interview key characters in reggae’s history for music magazines such as Wax Poetics, Natty Dread, Riddim, Vibrations. He directed the acclaimed 10-episode documentary series Sound System for the ARTE channel (France/Germany) in 2017. As a curator, he has developed exhibitions on the topic in Paris, France (Jamaica, Jamaica!, Philharmonie de Paris, 2017; Say Watt, le Culte du Sound System, La Gaîté Lyrique, 2013) and Los Angeles (Hometown Hifi, Sonos Studios, 2015).

Herbie Miller, Jamaica Music Museum.  Herbie Miller is a cultural historian specializing in slave culture, Black identity and ethnomusicology. He is the Director/Curator of the Jamaica Music Museum where he introduced the popular Grounation series. Miller managed reggae stars The Skatalites, Toots & the Maytals, Third World and Peter Tosh. In a career that spans over 40-years, he has produced exhibitions, concerts and recordings of ska, reggae and jazz, locally and internationally. He also composed and produced the critically acclaimed “Aluta Continua” done by reggae artist Big Youth. Two of his songs, “Feel It” and “Survival Plan” were used in major Hollywood movies Something Wild and The Manchurian Candidate.  A prolific writer, Herbie Miller has had his essays published in journals, magazines and as book chapters.

O’Neil Lawrence, National Gallery of Jamaica. O’Neil Lawrence is the Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Jamaica, and also has curatorial oversight for their western branch National Gallery West. He was the lead curator on the exhibitions Seven Women Artists (2015), Masculinities (2015), I Shall Return Again (2018) and Beyond Fashion (2018). Lawrence is an artist whose photography and video work has been included in several international exhibitions. His research interests include race, gender and sexuality in Caribbean and African Diasporal art and visual culture; memory, identity and hidden archives; photography as a medium and a social vehicle; Caribbean and general art history and museums and other public cultural institutions. He has contributed essays to publications on Caribbean art most recently Histórias Afro-Atlânticas Vol 2 Antologia (MASP 2018). In 2018 he served on the Board of the Davidoff Art Initiative and he is currently on the Advisory Council of the Caribbean Art Initiative.

About the National Gallery of Jamaica

The National Gallery of Jamaica, established in 1974, is the oldest and largest public art gallery in the Anglophone Caribbean. It has a comprehensive collection of early, modern and contemporary art from Jamaica along with smaller Caribbean and international holdings. A significant part of its collections is on permanent view. The NGJ has an active exhibition programme, which includes retrospectives of work by major Jamaican artists, thematic exhibitions, guest-curated exhibitions, touring exhibitions that originate outside of the island, and, its two recurrent national exhibitions, the Kingston Biennial and the NGJ Summer Exhibition. The NGJ offers a range of educational services, including guided tours, lectures and panel discussions, and children’s art programmes and also operates a gift shop and coffee shop.

The National Gallery of Jamaica is a Division of the Institute of Jamaica, an Agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport.

Save the Date – “John Dunkley: Neither Day nor Night” to open on Sunday April 29, 2018

The National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ) is pleased to announce the homecoming of the exhibition John Dunkley: Neither Day nor Night April 29-July 29, 2018 after its eight-month run at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami (PAMM) where it was hailed as one of  “the most exciting museum shows around the US in 2017”.

Little in the history of Western art prepares us for Dunkley, wrote the late Dr David Boxer (1946-2017), Dunkley historian and curatorial advisor to PAMM. “There is a hypnotic rhythmic intensity in Dunkley’s paintings that is alien to English and American masters,” John Dunkley (b. 1891, Savanna-la-Mar — d. 1947, Kingston) is considered one of Jamaica’s first and finest ‘Intuitive’ or self-taught artists and the title of the show is a reference to his work’s idiosyncratic mood and palette: detailed, haunting imageries of landscapes, with psychologically and psycho-sexually suggestive underpinnings.

Though a selection of Dunkley’s work is on permanent display at the NGJ, only 50 paintings by Dunkley exist in the world. The exhibition’s return home then gives local audiences the rare opportunity to see this collection of thirty-four (34) paintings and nine (9) sculptures together for the first time since the NGJ Retrospective of his work in 1976.

Aside from his inclusion in the 1939 World’s Fair in San Francisco and the NGJ/Smithsonian travelling exhibition of 1983, Dunkley’s work was relatively unknown in the United States until PAMM’s light shone on Dunkley as a beacon of modern and contemporary art from the Caribbean. The Miami exhibition, organized by Curators Diana Nawi, former Associate Curator at PAMM along with Nicole Smythe-Johnson, independent curator, received rave reviews from ArtForum, Miami Rail, The Huffington Post, among others and art critic Matthew Higgs lamented the fact that he would have included it in his Best of 2017 list had he seen it sooner.

Smythe-Johnson, assisted by the NGJ Curatorial team, will oversee the local abridged installation of the show.  An accompanying monograph will be published and includes: Dr David Boxer’s last essay, which brings together over forty years of research into Dunkley’s life and work; an essay by Olive Senior that contextualises Dunkley within his historical moment; and an essay by the exhibition’s curators.

The monograph and the exhibition together present not only what Dunkley has been for Jamaica and the region, but also what he could become for the world.

Portraits in Dialogue and Engaging Abstraction exhibitions extended to March 25 !

The National Gallery of Jamaica is pleased to announce that due to popular demand, we will be extending the exhibitions Explorations V: Portraits in Dialogue and Explorations VI: Engaging Abstraction until March 25, 2018.

“Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection” Opens at National Gallery’s Last Sundays on July 30

The National Gallery of Jamaica’s new exhibition, the Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection, will open on Sunday, July 30, 2017. Paul Issa will be the guest speaker at the function, which will start at 1:30 pm, and this will be followed by a musical performance by singer Stephanie.

The Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection exhibition documents some fifty years of collecting, mostly of Jamaican art but also of art and craft from elsewhere in the Caribbean and Central America. The exhibition also tells the story of a particularly group of people who made their lives in post-Independence Jamaica and who were deeply immersed in the cultural and artistic developments of that moment, to which they actively contributed.

Annabella Ogden Proudlock, who had been a successful fashion model in London in the 1960s, moved to Jamaica with her first husband David Ogden in 1966. David Ogden became a partner in Perry Henzell’s Vista Productions company, which did pioneering work in film and television production in Jamaica, and Annabella started working with Operation Friendship, an inner-city programme for children where she first taught and later directed the Christmas card programme. They had two children, Sebastian and Jessica.  After David died in 1978, Annabella moved her young family from Kingston to Ocho Rios and entered the local craft industry with her Annabella Boxes, finely wrought cedar boxes decorated with Jamaican art reproductions that remain as classic Jamaican craft items to the present day. Annabella then teamed up with a group of friends—the artists Graham Davis and Dawn Scott, the architect Ben Eales, and, soon also, the chartered accountant Peter Proudlock, who became Annabella’s second husband—to restore Harmony Hall, a 19^th century Methodist manse in Tower Isle, St Mary. Harmony Hall opened in 1981, with Annabella as the Managing Director, and quickly established itself as the premier art gallery on the Jamaican North Coast, with regular exhibitions and ongoing stock display of local art and craft. While Harmony Hall has shown a wide range of art and artists, the Gallery is best known for its association with the Intuitives, with the much-anticipated annual Harmony Hall Intuitives exhibitions and regular solo exhibitions. Annabella Proudlock was actively involved in scouting new talent and maintained a close supportive relationship with the new and older Intuitives, and this approach also carried over in her involvement in craft development, for which the annual Easter Craft Fairs were a major outlet. Annabella passed away in 2015 and Peter Proudlock in 2016, which marked the end of an era in Jamaican art.

 

 

Anghelen – Untilted (Wedding Portrait of Annabella and Peter Proudlock), (n.d.), Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection

Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection

Graham Davis – Frienship Cottage (1980), Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection

Mallica “Kapo” Reynolds – Orange Grove (1075). Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection

Ras Dizzy – Bird in Jamaica (1966), Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection

Colin Garland – Boy with Grass (1975), Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection

Vaneca – La Conga Cresta (2003), Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection

Michael Parchment – Welcome to Harmony Hall (2006). Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection

Illustrating the extent to which art collections are also historical artefacts, much of the work in the Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection is directly associated with the Proudlocks’ involvement with Harmony Hall and its artists, and the Harmony Hall building even appears as a regular subject. The exhibition also includes several works that Annabella collected before Harmony Hall was established, art works and craft items that were collected during their many travels in the Caribbean and Central America, and a few key works that were first in Annabella and Peter’s collection but are now owned by others. The Proudlocks actively lived with their collection, which could be found in all parts of their home, including the spectacularly decorated kitchen, and the exhibition therefore also speaks about living with art. The exhibition also includes photographs and documentary material on the lives of Annabella, David Ogden, Peter Proudlock and their family and friends, and, of course, on Harmony Hall.

The guest speaker on Sunday, July 30,  Paul Issa, who was long-time friend of Annabella and Peter Proudlock, is a well-known Jamaican hotelier, philanthropist and actor. He is Deputy Chairman of the House of Issa and its subsidiary Issa Hotels & Resorts Ltd. which owns and operates Couples Resorts, and he is Chairman of the Issa Foundation.

Stephanie

Stephanie is a singer, songwriter and model, whose reggae fusion sound incorporates the essence of reggae, R&B, soul, dancehall, and pop. After a stint with the Ashearibbean Performing Arts Company, where she trained and toured as a singer, dancer, and musical theatre actor, Stephanie provided backing vocals for local and international artists, such as the Basque Band singer Fermin Muguruza and reggae acts such as Groundation, Cherine Anderson, Coco Tea, Chaka Demus & Pliers and Mr Vegas. She also recorded two studio albums with Sly & Robbie for Sony Music Japan. Along with Chantelle Ernandez and Scantana, she formed the group UNITZz, whose two albums J Paradise and J Lovers gained tremendous success in Japan. A seasoned songwriter, Stephanie is signed to Rebel America Inc (a production and publishing company in Dallas, Texas) where she writes and records songs for placements on television shows, movies, international ad campaigns, and labels. In February of 2013 Stephanie founded the indie record label Havatio Music. Her debut EP Real Woman and debut album The Christmas Collection were released by Havatio in 2013 to rave reviews. Additionally, along with a group of music industry professionals, Stephanie is a Director for the Gungo Walk World Alternative Music and Arts Festival that is held annually at the Edna Manley College.

The opening of the Annabella and Peter Proudlock Collection coincides with the National Gallery’s Last Sundays programme for July 2017. While the opening function starts at 1:30 pm, and will be followed by the musical performance, the National Gallery’s doors will, as usual, be open from 11 am to 4 pm. The event is open to the public and admission is free; all are cordially invited. Contributions to the donations box are gratefully accepted and the gift and coffee shops will also be open. Proceeds are used to fund exhibitions and programmes such as Last Sundays.