Jamaica Biennial 2017 – Bulletin 1: NGJ Welcomes International Judges
by nationalgalleryofjamaica
Preparations for the Jamaica Biennial 2017
are moving into high gear next week with the selection of the juried
section of the exhibition, which will take place on Monday, January 9
and Tuesday, January 10, 2017.
The
juried section of the Biennial is open to artists resident in Jamaica
and artists living elsewhere but who were born in Jamaica or are of
Jamaican parentage. For the juried section of the Jamaica Biennial 2017,
the National Gallery has received 176 qualifying entries by 110
artists. The panel of judges for 2017 consists of two international
judges—Amanda Coulson and Christopher Cozier—and two local
judges—Susanne Fredricks and Omari Ra. Artists will be notified about
selections by Friday, January 13.
The
National Gallery wishes to extend a special welcome to its two
international judges, who are both arriving in the Island this weekend.
Amanda Coulson is the Director of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.
A Bahamian national, she grew up in New York and London with frequent
visits to her Nassau-based family. She studied for her Master’s Degree
at the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU and then started her career at the
established old master dealers, Wildenstein & Sons, in New York,
before going on to work in various galleries in London, Paris and
Milan. Coulson spent two years as the international editor of the
bilingual Italian/English contemporary art magazine Tema Celeste
out of Milan, Italy, before moving to Frankfurt, Germany, where she
wrote for a wide variety of international art magazines, such as Modern Painters, Art Review, Art News, Lapiz, and Frieze.
She has also provided critical texts for monographic gallery and museum
shows and worked as a freelance curator, organising gallery and
institutional exhibitions, some for Bahamian artists abroad. Coulson is
one of the cofounders of the VOLTA contemporary art fairs, held in Basel, Switzerland, and New York, USA, and continues to serve as its Artistic Director.
Christopher Cozier
is an artist, writer and curator. He was born in 1959, in Port of
Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, where he lives and works. He holds a BFA
from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from Rutgers
University. Cozier’s work has been featured internationally at the
Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of Art and Design NY; the Havana Biennial; the Biennial de Cuenca, Ecuador; the Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: América Latina y el Caribe; and the TATE Liverpool. His Entanglements
series was recently shown at the Eli & Edythe Broad Museum at MSU
and also at TEOR/ética, San Jose, Costa Rica in 2015. He was a member of
the editorial collective of Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism and an editorial adviser to BOMB Magazine for their Americas issues. He is co-director of Alice Yard,
a 10-year old arts space in Port-of-Spain which organizes exhibitions,
artists’ residences, cultural dialogue and exchanges. He received the Prince Claus Award
for 2013 for his “influential role and open inclusive approach in
developing art and culture across the Caribbean; for selflessly and
generously creating possibilities for others, inspiring and mentoring
younger generations; for his disciplined commitment to intellectual
inquiry and critical discourse.”
The two local judges are well-known professionals in the Jamaican art world. Susanne Fredricks
is art dealer, curator and art auction organizer. She is Exhibitions
Director at Gallery 128 and Hi-Qo Gallery and operates the Contemporary
Caribbean Art Gallery, an online platform. She previously served as
Deputy Director at 198 Contemporary Arts in London and as Director of
Urban Art Vision, an art-based new media and technology programme for
youth at risk. Fredricks holds a BSc in Anthropology and Film from
Goldsmiths College and an MSc in Environment and Development in Latin
America from the University of London. Omari Ra is a
painter and art lecturer and serves as the head of the Fine Arts
department at the School of Visual Arts of the Edna Manley College. He
holds a Diploma in Painting from the Jamaica School of Art and an MFA
from the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth. Ra was the recipient
of the National Gallery of Jamaica’s Aaron Matalon Award for his
contribution 2004 National Biennial and was awarded the Institute of
Jamaica’s Silver Musgrave Medal in 2010. Fredricks and Ra both serve on
the National Gallery of Jamaica’s Board of Management. Read more of this post
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