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Join the Gallery of Caribbean Art for an Artists’ Talk on April 9th, Women’s Work 2: the “I” of Venus show now extended!

Join the Gallery of Caribbean Art for an Artists’ Talk on April 9th, Women’s Work 2: the “I” of Venus show now extended!

Stown GCA 08

Today a serious art show is rare. One by one galleries have closed. So Women’s Work 2: the “I” of Venus at Gallery of Caribbean Art, Speightstown, has proved very popular and a huge crowd attended the opening night. Twelve women are showing work they have never shown before, looking at the Venus concept in their own way. The themes of love, sex, creativity, fertility are all explored.

They range from Darla Trotman‘s literal, photo-realistic acrylic paintings of face parts- teary eye, red lips – through the softly romantic portraits of Tracey Williams, to Rosemary Parkinson‘s sharp wit, expressed in stark, cartoonish black-white and red drawings and Lilian Nicholson-Sten‘s unapologetically stormy, abstract renditions of the female principle.

Much of the work on display is mixed media, ranging from clay mixed with fabric in the “Bone Bearers” of Heather-Dawn Scott, to Joyce Daniel‘s assemblage of Shell/Birth created of paper plates, an embroidery hoop and painting, to Heidi Berger’s mosaics of found shards on skim board.
Corrie Scott innovatively explores one image, the Venus of Willendorf, 18 times, keeping the original size of just 8 inches and the surprise of the original finding of an ancient fertility goddess. She uses both digitally manipulation and computer art programs to create a contemporary view of an old girl.

Women's Work 2: the "I" of Venus show at the Gallery of Caribbean Art..... also attached is a review of the show. Hope to see you Thursday at 2 pm!
Women’s Work 2: the “I” of Venus show at the Gallery of Caribbean Art….. also attached is a review of the show. Hope to see you Thursday at 2 pm!

However actually creating a goddess is Martina Pilé. Its body is made of a huge local calabash, carved with star maps and symbols from Caribbean and Amerindian legends,which she has meticulously researched.

Joyce Daniel, referencing Maya Angelou, celebrates the “eternally feminine” in three mixed media works portraying woman as giving birth, as the nurturer and as standing tall.

Ann Rudder presents her symbol-laden, ancestral narratives in colourful, multi-layered assemblages. Her large Tree of Life, a sheepskin stretched by cords like a flayed green skin, is piled with small portraits of women from different races with the male principal rising in the centre, shown by little male portraits from different places. Ann also shows wearable art, meticulously assembled vests called “Armours of Venus”, each with its own historical and symbolic reference.

Heather-Dawn Scott steps away from her nostalgic Caribbeana paintings to confront the viewer with edgy and visually exciting mixed media works. Her vibrant fabric and fibre collages tell many stories and show traditional “woman’s work” in an abstract, contemporary format. Her “Bone Bearers’, little figures of clay carrying womb-like structures on their head with the bones of ancestors, are based on the wooden figures of the Dogon of Mali.

Ichia Tiyi is a master silversmith and jeweler, whose trademark is natural, and effortless, elegance. She shows wonderful pendants and earrings in silver that any Venus would be proud to be adorned with which embody the spiritual and earthy qualities of universal womanhood. Her “Manhole Covers”, exquisite wall pieces of hammered copper, cheekily reference chastity belts.

Pure painting and the creative process is shown by Alison Chapman-Andrews‘ in her precise and abstract landscapes. She shows the development of one image from the drawing stage to the final painting in six small paintings that show the progression involved in her personal creative process.

The exhibition has been organized by Heidi Berger and Corrie Scott and is now extended at the Gallery of Caribbean Art in Speightstown until April 23rd, 2015.

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