Independence exhibition depicts reflections of national life

May 24, 2009 News

“Image and Identity – Guyanese Art Now”, an exhibition to celebrate the country’s 43rd Independence anniversary, opened last Wednesday at the National Art Gallery.
While not overtly or consciously nationalistic in form or expression, the works of the artists on display represent interpretations of their physical, spiritual and psychological engagement with Guyana and its people.

Betrayed: Loi-Ann Jacobs, 2007.

The exhibition also celebrates International Museum Day, which is celebrated by museums and galleries around the world on or around May 18th, to highlight their contribution to society. The theme for International Museum Day this year is “Museums and Tourism.”
The exhibition of 16 artists includes nine established National Collection artists, including Oswald Hussein, George Simon, Gary Thomas, Betsy Karim, Terence Roberts, Carl Anderson and Winslow Craig alongside seven newer artists many of whom are recent graduates of the University of Guyana and Burrowes School of Art, and including those working in arts administration and visual art teaching. These are Jynell Osbourne, Lori-Ann Jacobs, Ohene Koama, Akima McPherson, Anil Roberts, Thurston Brown and Lloyd Blanchard.
The group, comprising 12 painters and four sculptors, shows works on varying themes which reflect Guyana as inspiration and experience for artists, presenting a range of images through which viewers may interpret Guyanese identity as the nation’s Independence anniversary is celebrated.
According to Curator of the National Art Gallery Elfrieda Bissember, the works in the current exhibition can be seen as part of the process of a nation discovering itself.
In marking the occasion of the change from colonisation to independence, the work of the artists can also be seen as an indicator of the current moment in the progress towards nationhood and self-understanding, Bissember notes.

Anil Robert’s ‘Kamo Wanin Yena.

Physically and symbolically for example, Guyana is interpreted through abstractions of landscape by leading artist George Simon, and by younger artists who were influenced by him, such as Anil Roberts, a Macushi youth from Annai in the Rupununi, whose ‘Kamo Wanin Yena’ portrays the eyes of a hunter in search of game, as has been the traditional practice of our indigenous people.
By contrast, a distinctive palette and accomplished handling of paint are displayed by Jynell Osborne, a recent graduate of the UG Fine Arts programme, while Lloyd Blanchard, a 2009 graduate of this programme also, extends into social commentary reflecting his minor study in graphics, as well as earlier immersions into ancient Amerindian graphology, the earliest of Guyanese art forms, via his triptych “Timehri to Aishalton.”

Baby’s Day Out: Betsy Karim, 2008.

The exhibition is open to the public and continues to July 31. The gallery is open from Monday to Friday from 10:00-17: 00hrs and on Saturday from 14:00-18:00hrs.