The recently
opened north-coast branch of the National Gallery of Jamaica is hosting a new
exhibition titled Xaymaca: Nature and the Landscape in Jamaican Art, scheduled
to run until August 2015 in Montego Bay.
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| The show's poster, with a detail of Colin Garland's "In the Beautiful Caribbean" (National Gallery). |
“Xaymaca” was
the Taino name for the Caribbean island, meaning “land of wood and water,” and
the show celebrates the “spectacular natural beauty of Jamaica, seen through
the eyes of Jamaican and visiting artists from the colonial period to the
present,” according to the curators.
The
exhibition features major works from the National Gallery's collection and comprises
four sections: plantation era art; early and 20th-century photography; paintings
and one sculpture from the nationalist school of the mid-twentieth century; and
paintings and sculpture from the post-Independence generation.
The artists
include well-known names such as Barrington Watson, Mallica “Kapo” Reynolds, Edna
Manley, Albert Huie, and Hope Brooks, all of whom have created works that are
now considered national treasures. The exhibition is curated by Dr Veerle
Poupeye, executive director of the National Gallery, and O’Neil Lawrence,
senior curator.
Established
in 1974, the National Gallery is the oldest and largest public art museum in
the Anglophone Caribbean. It has a comprehensive collection of early, modern
and contemporary art from Jamaica along with smaller Caribbean and
international collections. A major selection of the artworks is on permanent
view.
The National
Gallery West branch, launched in 2014, is located at the Montego Bay Cultural
Centre, Sam Sharpe Square.
