#sexypink/oil painting

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SEXYPINK Reviews: I went for a drive and Never Came Back - Tracey Johnson

(Solo show) LOFTT Gallery Roselino Street Woodbrook

October 6 -20th 2023

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A ditty of Bruce Springsteen and the title of a recently completed Solo show by the prolific Tracey Johnson at Loftt in Woodbrook discusses a restless spirit. Springsteen croons ‘ride, and never went back, Johnson, ‘drive, and Never Came Back’.

Whatever the lyrics Miss Johnson has single handedly shown why going to Art shows matter. Her Hyper Realistic, Expressionistic Abstractions are thought provoking masterful works. 

Her technical skills are so on point that as you stand next to her girl smiling or red devil, it takes a few seconds for ones thoughts to wrap around the fact that these ARE NOT photographs.

Even more so, her decision to deliberately toy with reality by blurring, marking and splattering heightens the delightful drama on the canvases.

For example her egg drop sun and black drizzle over the La Basse image could be gimmicky in any other hands.

Miss Johnson triumphs here by instinctively being in synch with every single brush stroke she renders. She gives just enough shift from Realism to Fantasy as can be seen in Maracas beach where her sun is a child’s playful scrawl.

What I appreciate most about I went for a drive and Never Came Back is its unexpected candor on life in the tropical paradise that is Trinidad and Tobago.

Overlaying frenetic markings on captured moments, defining the happenstance of one’s input like a diary or a witness to the mundane (beauty) likened to the simplicity of  driving on a dark night - is all done with an ease, an exceptional understanding of painting. It is a comprehension fraught with the discipline of getting out of the way and letting the energy come forward as she does - not simple or easy at all.

Everybody has a hungry heart, Springsteen sings and Miss Johnson’s heart beats for us in her work. One of the most impactful shows of 2023 so far. 

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Sexypink - major browny points!

Sexypink/ Jamaican Oil Painter Alicia Brown.

Alicia Brown’s candid imagery is so very watchable and provocative. - Sexypink

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Sexypink - Aurora Honeywell

When I come across work I have not seen before, and it causes me to pause, it is always a special feeling and moment. I look forward to more.

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Sexypink - Subran remembers the old time days.

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Sexypink - Ashley Thomas-Steuart at Soft Box Art Gallery now.

"I would tell you how much I love you if I could only quantify it myself”

28"×22" oil on canvas

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“Embers” oil on canvas

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“This is no ThroneI wear no Crown” 48”x36” oil on canvas 

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“Exit Stage Left”  oil on canvas

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and a detail.

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Sexypink - JACQUELINE BISHOP, writer and visual artist, born in Kingston, Jamaica, and who now lives and works in New York City. She has held several Fulbright Fellowships, and exhibited her work widely in North America, Europe and North Africa. She is also an Associate Professor in the School of Liberal Studies at New York University.

On one hand, the market woman/huckster is the most ubiquitous figure to emerge from plantation Jamaica. Yet, as pervasive as the figure of the market woman is in Jamaican and Caribbean art and visual culture, she remains critically overlooked. In this set of fifteen dishes, I am both paying homage to the market woman—centering her importance to Caribbean society from the period of slavery onwards—and placing her within a critical context. In particular, I place the market woman within a long tradition of female labor depicted in diverse imagery that I have sourced online, including early Jamaican postcards, paintings of enslaved women from Brazil, the colonial paintings of the Italian Agostino Brunias, and present-day photographs, which I collage alongside floral and abolitionist imagery.

I work in ceramics because all the women around me as I grew up—my mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother—cherished ceramic dinner plates. These were centerpieces kept in one of their most important acquisitions, a specially made mahogany cabinet. To fabricate the plates, it is important that I am working with Emma Price, a British ceramicist based in Stoke-on-Trent in the former Spode factories. In the realization of the series, that connection imbues them with a meaning that shows the long and enduring relationship between England and Jamaica. For that same reason, British Art Studies is a fitting venue for their first ever publication and partner to create an accompanying film exploring the plates and their themes.

Though the likenesses of none of the women in my family are represented in this series, centering the market woman is my way of paying homage to my great-grandmother Celeste Walker, who I grew up knowing very well, and who was a market woman/huckster/milkwoman par excellence. Celeste was born in the tiny district of Nonsuch hidden high in the Blue Mountains in Portland Parish on the island of Jamaica. Her mother died on the way home from a market, when my great-grandmother was too young to even remember her face. In her adulthood, while my great-grandfather farmed the land, my great-grandmother was the huckster who could easily carry bunches of bananas and baskets of food on her head; the market woman who travelled to far away Kingston to sell in Coronation Market, the largest market on the island. She also hawked fresh fish, and prepared and sold coconut oil, ginger beer, cut flowers, and cocoa beans that were pounded in a heavy wooden mortar. I remember her in my childhood as the milkwoman waking very early in the morning and walking through the district selling fresh cow’s milk. The tradition of huckstering would be passed on to my grandmother who relished the role in her older years. My hope in doing this work is to give much respect to the market women of the Jamaican and larger Atlantic world who have fed, and continue to feed, nations. The market woman is the defining symbol of Jamaican and Caribbean societies.

My work integrates the mediums of painting, drawing and photography to explore issues of home, ancestry, family, connectivity and belonging. As someone who has lived longer outside of my birthplace of Jamaica, than I have lived on the island, I am acutely aware of what it means to be simultaneously an insider and an outsider. This ability to see the world from multiple psychological and territorial spaces has led to the development of a particular lens that allows me to view a given environment from a distance. Because I am also a fiction writer and poet as well as a visual artist, the text and narrative are significant parts of my artistic practice.

Oftentimes I utilize a process of competing narratives to have the viewer participate in the creation of meaning. In my “Folly” series I recount a story I heard as a child, of two tales of a “haunted” house. In time, I researched the history of the house and through a process of photomontage combined photographs I took with archival footage to try and tell the two stories. The ghostly images of the past occupants are integrated into the walls and on the grounds of the present-day ruins. The overall effect is spectral and haunting. I also used this process of photomontage in an ongoing series of ethereal and transcendent “Childhood Memories,” in which characters are often split between heaven and earth. There is a palpable sense of loss in these images as characters seek to inhabit a time and a place long gone.

The “Babylon” and “Zion” paintings are about the Rastafarian ideas of Babylon being a place of captivity and oppression while Zion symbolizes a utopian place of unity and peace. In the Babylon series, I write the lyrics from songs and poems to create text-based drip paintings leading up to the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon,” in which I use popular dancehall posters to evoke the inner-city Babylonian “walls” of Kingston. The Zion series is comprised largely of monochrome paintings to delineate this symbolic paradise. Glitter is present in these works not only as a representation of the paradise that Rastafarians seek in the Biblical homeland of Zion but also as a commentary on the ‘bling and glitter’ culture that has enveloped much of Jamaican society. Consequently, my work is very much engaged with helping me to understand my heritage.

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Back Room Bertha 2008 10 x 10 inches Oil on linen

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Sexypink - A gem of an article on an exceptional body of work by Jamaican Artist Roberta Stoddart.

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~Sexypink~  HazBat .2020. Roberta Stoddart . Oil paint on primed hardboard and stretcher bar. 9 x 6” . Part of the Exhibition RAW; the space in between . Special viewing this Saturday 8.8.2020

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~Sexypink~ I just got the very sad news of the passing of Lisa O’Connor. What a lovely person she was. I have had the pleasure of many conversations with her, both at her home and at one of the places that she loved to work, The Savanna. 

The time she gave to me when discussing the book to be published, Inner Sanctum: Artists Studios was so special. I shall remember her gentle manner, her shy smile and her big heart. Rest in peace.

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                                     S    E    X     Y     P    I     N     K

Our great artist Lisa O’Connor, who died in 2020, had a large stock of artist’s material in her home when she passed. Her family have generously placed all this (paints, stretched canvases, paint brushes etc etc) at 101, for young upcoming artists to take away, free of charge, anything they make good use of, in her memory.101 is open Saturday and Sunday 10am to 4pm. 628-4081

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~Sexypink~ September shall begin with a first solo from Artist Brian Ashing.  There are an extremely small number of Artists working in oil in Trinidad and Tobago. His choice is thus a treat to be able to see close up. Do save the date.

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~SEXYPINK’s top 10 breakout Artists for the decade (2010-2019) When I first saw the work of both Roberta Stoddart and Leasho Johnson I got a fever. It was one of those heart racing, dry mouth moments where you want to see everything they have ever done.

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~Sexypink~ Congratulations to  Catapult Consultancy Voucher Winners - view a few of them here-:

Richard Nattoo is an illustrator and fine artist born in St. Catherine Jamaica. He graduated from the University of Technology where he received a BA in Architecture. Richard’s work has been featured in several National Gallery of Jamaica exhibitions as well as solo exhibits. He has garnered much acclaim for his surreal dreamlike creations that explore human emotions on a raw cerebral level.

Born in 1958, Alwyn St. Omer is the fourth child in a family of nine. His Mother Cynthia was a personal assistant in the Prime Minister’s office and his father the late Hon. Sir Dunstan St. Omer, a widely acclaimed international artist of Saint Lucian origins.

As a child, Alwyn was inspired by the plentiful supply of picture books around the house, which served to motivate him to draw and paint pictures. Also, at about age six he was introduced to Illustrated Classics and Marvel Comics, which stimulated his appetite, not only for graphic designs, but also for fairytales and storytelling in a pictorial format. Growing up in an artistic environment provided stimulus. Alwyn as a young inspiring artist was privileged to witness plays performed by the famous local company—Saint Lucia Arts Guild—adding a dimension of realism to what he saw and read on the page. He was enamoured by plays steeped in the island’s rich folk and musical traditions that included some of the early works of the island’s Nobel Laureate, poet Derek Walcott and his playwright twin brother Roderick.

It is from this launching pad that Alwyn, the artist and storyteller was thrust into orbit, a creative artist with very deep passion and lifelong desire to document his island’s cultural heritage through his drawings and paintings. For him rediscovery and preservation of all the treasures forming the formidable expanse loosely termed the Saint Lucian Environment, History, Culture and Folklore would be his life’s achievement. Its art, myths, writings and traditions.

Alwyn studied Art at the Edna Manley School for the Visual Arts in Jamaica and Video Production and Audio Visuals at Portsmouth College in England. Alwyn is a master draughtsman and colorist defining and refining images in a style that is uniquely his own. His work is numerous including paintings in Acrylics and oil on canvas, Pen and ink illustrations and wall murals. Of note are his Design of St Lucia’s National Independence Monument, the Semi Dome Mural in the ceiling of the ancient River Doree Anglican Church in Choiseul, the Castries City Council commissioned outdoor murals at Faux- a-Chaud on the outskirts of the city, his Moon Dancer Series of abstract Paintings based on the lost Masquerade Tradition of St Lucia and Soucoyan, a Graphic Novel on St Lucian Folktales.

Rhonda Chan Soo is a Trinidadian documentary filmmaker. She earned merit-based scholarships which allowed her to pursue her tertiary studies in the US, where various threads interwove into her pursuit of a career in documentary film. She has been the Managing Director of Bird’s Eye View Productions since 2018, and has kept the social issue tradition of the company alive, further moulding it with her creative voice. Informed by empathy, a desire for justice and equality, and a critical practice that acknowledges her own positionality as a POC woman from the Global South, Rhonda is interested in exploring social issues, environment and culture.

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~Sexypink~  Special Surinamese artist 'Soeki' Irodikromo’ died Today the famous painter, maker of ceramic art and Batik, Sukidjan Irodokromo, died in his native country Suriname. He turned 75 years old. Soeki leaves the world special works of art. Sukidjan Irodikromo was born June 20, 1945 in Pieterszorg in Commewijne District. From 1963 to 1967 he attended a course at the Cultural Center Suriname (CCS school for Visual Arts conducted by Nola Hatterman) in Paramaribo. Back then, American President Johnson bought a painting from him, and a week later, Soeki was told that he was receiving a grant from STICUSA (Cultural Cooperation Foundation with Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles) to go to the Netherlands and study there. From 1967 to 1972 he did the free painting and chart at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam and from 1971 to 1972 he deepened himself into the ceramic. Afterwards he continued his studies with a batic training at the ASRI in Jogyakarta, Indonesia.

Back in Suriname he introduced batik painting there. Both in his batik cloths and oil paintings and his ceramic (vases and images), Irodikromo achieved a large production of almost constant quality. His work is in collections spread all over the world. He also made the illustrations in various books. From his admiration for Cobra expressionism, he started working in a style that connected the half abstraction of Cobra to themes and symbols from Javanese mythology. With this he was the first Surinamese artist to bring together tradition and modernity in his own idiom. Sukidjan Irodikromo's works of art are inspired by the Wayang game, Kantjil and Anansi tori. He is among the generation and caliber of Erwin de Vries, Ruben Karsters, Rudi de la Fuente and Paul Woei. Important message he leaves us is: ′′ Let your kids go to school. That gives them power. In the Netherlands I had adjustment problems and language problems. But that didn't stop me from moving on. I dared, because it's about the quality of my work ".

Family background

His parents were farmers. The plantation life used to be very simple. Grandpa and grandma could teach us nothing but work, because for other things they had neither time nor knowledge. Working with a ' berang ' (houwer) and ' pacol ' (hoeing) was the only thing that was taught them. Building a house was done with 'gotong royong' (mutual assistance). Neighbors and family helped each other. A lot of ' teloh ' (cassave), ' gedang ' (banana), fresh fish, such as ' teri ' (salted little fish) and ' ikan asin ' (salty fish) were eaten daily. Sometimes the family had nothing and ate rice with the oil in which the fish was baked. Meat was only eaten when someone threw a party and with 'Bada' (Sugar Fest). Father Irodikromo would have saved up for new pants for the kids.

People in that time believed in ' kersane Allah ' (God's will). ′′ I leave it to tomorrow's day was what people said. Closing the plantations was quite a vein release for many families. Also for the Irodikromo family. They subsequently used the possibility to purchase land on the plantation Koewarasan, which the family moved to.

http://www.oas.org/artsoftheamericas/soeki-irodikromo

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Roberta Stoddart

~Sexypink~ From the show RAW right now in Trinidad and Tobago..... Steppin’ Out.2020. Roberta Stoddart . Oil paint on primed hardboard and stretcher bar. 9 x 6”

and  His Excellency Grand General Chairman Corona . 2020. Roberta Stoddart . Oil paint on primed hardboard and stretcher bar. 9 x 6” . Part of RAW.

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Sonya Sanchez Arias .EMPTY SPACES Mixed Media Assemblage 90" x 22" x 7" (Urban angel #1)

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SHALINI. A Sense if their Existence. 18 x 14”

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“When the presence of other people begins to fade, as it did during this period, your own pulse becomes louder”- Che Lovelace . Portrait with Capuchin Monkeys. Che Lovelace . Assorted pigment on board. 25 x 30”. 

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Serenity Prayer . Susan Dayal . 18 - 22 gauge galvanised wire, nylon fishing line, bamboo. “ Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” 2020 began with a sense of foreboding. For 12 years, I have listened to my husband espousing collapse propaganda, leaving me depressed and anxious. Driven to “do something” I spent the Carnival weekend creating a food garden. 2 weeks later, it all made sense as COVID 19 started spreading across the globe towards us like a slow motion trainwreck. During the lockdown, working in my garden, with all its triumphs and failures, kept me sane.” - Susan Dayal . Part of the exhibition- RAW

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Dean Arlen . Raw-men. Paper, wood glue, spray enamel, oil paint, epoxy, acrylic paint . 60 x 60”. “Exploring RAW – NESS - conjures the primal instinctive savagery in making. How far can savagery survive in this modern economy, what are the limitations, the editorial conversation in containing the line, texture, temperament – the pure elements that start the blocks that build into the constructive language – of contemporary of art –“ - Dean Arlen .