- Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
Viewers lean in for a closer look at 'The Art of Dreaming' installation work by artist Nakazzi Hutchinson at the 'Curator's Eye' exhibition which opened last Sunday at the National Gallery of Jamaica in downtown Kingston.
Chester Francis-Jackson, Gleaner Writer
MY DEARS, things artistic and beautiful have always been the first refuge of the intelligentsia and social elite in difficult times. After all, it has been said that 'a thing of beauty is indeed a joy forever'.
And whilst the nouveau classes have always balked at the notion of purchasing art as anything but a utilitarian and necessary fixture to break the drabness of concrete and/or wooden walls, they, too, have come to the realisation that not only do these utilitarian fixtures break the monotony of concrete or wooden walls, they also add a certain amount of charm.
It is this realisation that is largely responsible and this is worldwide for the swelling of the ranks of art lovers and patrons.
With the bursting of the financial bubble and the falling from financial grace of new money which occurred during the 80s and 90s, a sense of stability and even decorum has been returned to world of the arts.
And so it is that with this evaporation of the would-be power-brokers, the connoisseurs, art collectors, art-lovers and aficionados have all emerged from their self-imposed cocoons, to enjoy, revel in and/or simply appreciate the glory and beauty of art.
My dears, such was the sense of fabulousness that was the over-arching atmosphere last Friday, at the absolutely and fabulously wonderful home, cum gallery, of businessman and art collector extraordinaire, Wallace Campbell. And oh for my word, what a celebration it was.
Daahlings, y'all know the cliche, nature abhors a vacuum. Well she does, my dears and vengefully so!
And so it is, that last Friday, Wallace Campbell, of the illustrious Campbell family, hosted a reception at his Seaview Avenue home/gallery. The event was to celebrate the visit of an acclaimed and celebrated art historian, the executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the very charming and oh, so engaging, Dr. Lowery Stokes Simms. Dr. Simms is the visiting curator for the first of a new and inspiring series showcase, under the baton of the National Gallery of Jamaica. Under the title of the Curator's Eye, the exhibition showcases 14 contemporary Jamaican artists under the theme Install/In the Moment/In Site.
My dears, now Dr. Lowery Stokes Simms, is not only regarded as one of the world's preeminent art scholars, she is considered an international powerhouse of knowledge and reference. And so, me-daahlings, no surprises here that the reception to launch the Curator's Eye series, at which the charming doctor would be the curator-in-residence, proved a social masterpiece, and then some.
Pumpkins, I do swear that on the life of this here Pentium 4 and Monte Blanc, we are talking the absolute, and nothing but of the very acme of artistic and cultural Jamaica, here and now.
Doves, it was simply and awesomely fabulous a gathering of the art community, and then some!
Now, and without any doubt, businessman Wallace Campbell is by far and without question, the single largest collector of Caribbean and Cuban art, this side of the Western hemisphere! And no tomfoolery here as indeed, Wallace Campbell's collection reaches into the last 200-300 years of the region's history and boasts the early and treasured works of the early and contemporary masters. In fact, it is safe to say that a lot of the works (and we mean masterpieces) previously considered lost to the public, can be safely found in the fabulous collection that is Wallace Campbell's!
To tantalise, guests were offered a glimpse of early Jamaican and Cuban art, and set against the background of a property celebrated for its neo-classical overtures and undertones, y'all know we are talking haute fabulissimo and grand snobissimo, here! Pumpkins, it was like that, and then some! And we mean marvellously grand here.
Among those out sharing the absolute warmth and felicitations occasioned by the affair were Glynne Manley; the Hon Maurice and Valerie Facey; Dr. David Boxer of the National Gallery; Ambassador Don and Sonia Mills; Chris and Michelle Bovell; Paul and Oriente Issa; Dr. Ossie Harding; Junior Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Delano Franklyn; Ambassador Richard and Margaret Bernal; the Honorary Consul of Iceland, Robert MacMillan; Honorary Consul of Lithuania/artist/businesswoman Lois Sherwood; the elegant Jennifer Lim; Tom and Rose Tavares-Finson; Dr. Don Christian and companion Hyacinth Davidson; Maria Williams-Jones; Frank and Ann Ventura; the charming Sonia Jones; Brian Rosen; Maree Sigurdson; Matthew and Vynette Ziadie; the supremely elegant Anne McNamee; Marc Weinberger; Sarah Clunies; Robert Haughton and companion Heather Blanco; Tanya Nethersole; Jenny Hardie; Andreas Oberlii; renowned international dancer and choreographer Clive Thompson squiring Carol Campbell; Vivian Crawford, executive director of the Institute of Jamaica; dean of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Hope Brooks; curator of the Mutual life Gallery, Gilou Bauer; Guy McIntosh of the Frame Center Gallery; Hugh and Ouida Dunphy of the Bolivar Gallery; restauranteur Norma Shirley; Knolly Moses and Dr. Petrine Archer-Straw; artist Susan Shirley; singer/painter/sculptor Cecil Cooper; Maria LaYacona (photographer); Kay Sullivan (sculptor); Norma Harrack (ceramicist); Viv Logan (painter), fresh from a number of London commitments; Dorothy Henriques-Wells (painter); the charming Laura Facey Cooper and hubby Gordon Cooper (she being the hot sculptor made that much more famous for her Emancipation Park, nude sculptures) plus several others. And aam-a-telling-you, the night was nothing short of a renaissance.
