“!BEHOLD! Women’s Work, powerful statements of 12 Caribbean women” opens at the Gallery of Caribbean Art, Speightstown, on December 15th 2013.

The exhibition is the brainchild of Heidi Berger, whose main body of works is related to the lives of women. She calls herself  “an observer and a witness“and her methods have “an element of divination,” as she manipulates the surface until a narrative reveals itself.

For this exhibition she is joined by:

• Alison Chapman-Andrews, best known for her iconic landscapes, but currently concerned with the combined textures of paint and collage as part of an ongoing search for a new subject as “each painting, magically, seems to carry within it the germ of the next”
• Heather Dawn Scott whose nostalgic paintings of ‘Ole Time Caribbean Women” are inspired by archival photographs from the time, when plantations dominated West Indian society . With confident brushstrokes and colouristic flair she turn the scenes of fading, sepia-coloured images into larger-than-life renditions on canvas.
• Nineteenthth century images are also the central focus of Ann Rudder‘s multi-media work “Betsy Lemon – Setting Together, Quilting Softly“, a visual story about the Barbadian ancestral and craft heritage. Rudder is a heraldic artists with an impressive body of multi -media work to her name. As she combines mysticism with activism, she will not disappoint her many fans with this intriguing and intricate statement.
• Joyce Daniel has returned to the theme of “The Sacred Feminine” and all aspects of womanhood throughout her many-facetted career. This time she exhibits a series of multi-media torsos, inspired by the restricting corsets our mothers and grandmothers donned as a matter of course. These works were previously shown at JMArts in Paris and at the NCF e-create Symposium earlier this year.
• Tracey Williams works with a subtle layering of acrylic paints to achieve a vibrant surface with many undertones, a method which reflects the very essence and brilliant light of the Barbadian landscape. She has applied this technique to a new series of paintings , especially created for this exhibition.
• Natalie Atkins-Hinds blends found objects and random scraps with carefully textured surfaces and meticulous lines in her assemblages, In “I want a ponytail’ and “Hair and the Politics of Identity’ she explores the racial bias of a burdensome and stubborn colonial heritage as it pertains to ‘hair’; still a explosive topic in the lives of many women. Mixed media is also the choice of Nakazzi Hutchinson, a Jamaica based Barbadian artist , who is perhaps best known for her iconic female masks.
• The Tree Calabash is one of Martina Pilé -Zahles‘ favourite materials. From it she fashions both symbolic and utilitarian objects, through which she investigates the myths and legends of ‘Womanhood’ in the many cultures that have influenced Barbadian society.
• Her daughter, Simbah Pilé, feels, that there is a ‘battle for the self definition’ of the contemporary female, and it is this battle that she addresses in her work, as she explores the roles given to female characters via pop culture, narratives, and social norms.
• Corrie Scott experiments with different media; from purely representational water colours to large abstract pieces in acrylics and mixed media. As a prominent photographer, Scott always has a camera close to hand to capture the elusive moments and sudden insights of daily life.
• The elusive nature of music, especially the heartbeat rhythms of the Caribbean, is the main source of inspiration for Lilian Sten-Nicholson; a painter and printmaker, whose work varies from monochromes to vivid colours, from stark black-on-white statements to the subtle nuances of layered work.

!BEHOLD! shows the collective strength of ‘women’s work’ in a ‘line-up’ of women who, added to their roles as artists, have made significant contributions as administrators, writers, teachers, curators and promoters of Caribbean art. The exhibition will be open for viewing at the Gallery of Caribbean Art, Speightstown from 14th December 2013 to 16th January, 2014.

The Opening of !Behold! Women’s Work is in Speightstown on Dec. 15th from 2 – 6 pm