Where to place the artist in society?
That’s the question raised by “Image and Identity: Guyanese Art Now,” the new exhibition now on at the National Gallery, Castellani House.
The exhibition, which runs until July 31, features works by fifteen contemporary artists: Carl Anderson, Lloyd Blanchard, Thurston Brown, Derrick Callender, Winslow Craig, Oswald Hussein, Lori-Ann Jacobs, Betsy Karim, Ohene Koama, Akima McPherson, Jynell Osbourne, Anil Roberts, Terrence Roberts, George Simon, and Roaland Taylor.
It opened last month to coincide with Guyana’s 43rd Independence Anniversary celebrations, although in her catalogue notes, Curator Elfrieda Bissember observes that the featured works are neither “overtly or consciously nationalistic” nor “patriotic in form or expression.”
However, the work can be seen “as an indicator of the current moment in our progress to nationhood and self-understanding,” she suggests, noting the “common themes and trends which highlight recurring interests as they [the artists] engage with the challenge of interpreting Guyana and what it means to be Guyanese.”
If it needed it to be spelt out any clearer, Bissember makes a case for a unified view of the works on display: “They are artists’ interpretations of their physical, spiritual and psychological engagement with a country and its people, and their lived experience of it, as part of a society which provides support or challenge to their creative forces and activities.” Moreover, in this context the works can be seen as “identities” and/or “reflections,” she adds.
