Spiritual exhibition at Museum

At the opening of the exhibition on Wednesday, curator, Keomi Serrette told Newsday: “The exhibition brings together senior artists and aspiring artists as myself, and to me, I feel a bit overwhelmed to be the curator of the exhibition, and to have my work alongside those of my mentors.” She said the exhibition was initially to celebrate Spiritual Baptist Liberation Day, but unfortunately, there weren’t much artists working with that theme. She then took the decision to take a spiritual approach and labelled the exhibition Spiritual Integration, which she said worked for her, as she found artists who worked with the theme and produced work with that spiritual intensity.

Serrette said: “The exhibition offers multiple points of entry into the diverse ways in which artists explore complex ideas about spirituality, revolution, self-identity, unification, resilience and the aesthetic role of art and the artist in those contexts. As such the exhibition presents itself as a metaphor for the symbolisms and fundamentals associated with our country’s diverse cultural heritage.” Serrette added: “I found it was necessary to do something that marked that spirituality and being part of it is truly an extraordinary experience.” Some 45 pieces dating back from 1985 to the present, from 26 artists with ages ranging from 32 to 78 years are on exhibit.

Among some of the eye-catching pieces are Joseph Bacchus’ wood carving of Dancing Women, Deron Blackman’s Walking in Faith (acrylic on canvas), Brianna McCarthy’s Mutu Mori (acrylic on canvas), David Thomas’ Uchechi Okezie (pencil and charcoal on paper), Keith Ward’s Breaking Dawn (acrylic on paper), Hollister Mark Savige’s In Search of God...(ink/mixed media) and the SahFyhr Collection.

There are also other very interesting artwork from Serrette herself, LeRoy Clarke, Makemba Kunle, Turunesh Raymond, Hollister Marcelio Hovell, Althea Bastien, Kenwyn Crichlow, Emheyo Embah Bahabba, Damian Moore, Carlisle Harris and the late Pat Bishop.