Congratulations are in order for the organisers of ‘Beyond the Brush’ a pop-up, two-day commercial art gallery deep within the Marriott Hotel, Guyana. The art event which was hosted on Sept 29th and 30th offered visitors of the online gallery, FineArt.gy, an opportunity to see some of the art from its online collection in person alongside other work and artists not yet visible on the website.
Indeed, the event was a breath of fresh air. Unlike exhibitions that shy away from being blunt about their objective, ‘Beyond the Brush’ made no pretence that the art on exhibition was there to be viewed, enjoyed, and most importantly bought. The layout of screens invited movement through the collection and enough time to consider one thing before another thing caught one’s attention. While the artists were on hand to speak with visitors their peripheral presence was in my mind not intrusive; nothing kills a vibe like visiting an exhibition and having an eager artist approach you to open doors for conversation when all you want to do is look, consider, like, dislike and maybe buy something.
‘Beyond the Brush’ was not the space to linger long before work in quiet contemplation. This was clearly following commercial gallery formats. However, this was the place for brief sojourns out to sea on a blue-black night afloat one of five boats; to examine the emptiness of the old-fashioned baby pram; and to contemplate whether the shirtless, grey-haired, old man was smoking a blunt (a joint) or other inducer of hallucinogenic contemplation. This was a place for ceramic vessels to meet artful tables, and for sculpture to meet artsy fashion, although paintings predominated. This was also the place to discover new names alongside known artists, and to see new work as well as re-experience work seen elsewhere previously.
It has been a while since I visited an exhibition locally and was in the exhibition space with more than just my companions and perhaps the artists who were exhibiting and exhibition attendants. People took note of this exhibition and it was refreshing. I anticipated people would visit. After all, the advertising flyer was shared by many on social media. But I was surprised, nonetheless. And I was transported back in time to my student days in a foreign land when people got dressed on a Saturday afternoon to go out and view and enjoy art. As one of my companions said, “I can say without a doubt it was the best art experience I have had in Guyana […] for the longest while. […]. The whole spirit was good. […] It was nice to see a young crowd of people coming to see the work. […] It was wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed it!” And along with her, my very art-savvy young nieces meandered around the crowds excited by the art they were seeing. They too were enthused. The energy for art – the good and the not-so-good, the contemplative and decorative – for the time I visited was consistent and palpable.
Two weeks ago, I closed off an occasion of wanderings and ramblings with a mention of this upcoming exhibition and one other exhibition that was ongoing. I hoped for inspiration – not to write or to make my own art, but to feel that being invested in Guyana as a visual art practitioner functioning in one of many capacities made sense. ‘Beyond the Brush’ hinted that perhaps it is still possible to remain invested without a slow death from lack of interest and the winding of wheels in deadened sand. I hope this is the case for the event’s organisers, CEO of FineArt.gy Sade Barrow-Browne and her small team, inclusive of marketing and communications personnel and a few artists. Not only were they able to harness the interest of the 40 exhibiting artists of whom few are longtime participants on the local scene, but they were also able to garner the support of businesses and entities not usually affiliated with the promotion of visual art in Guyana: S & T Fabrication and Construction, Digicel Guyana, Reminis Soaps, and Ansa McAl Wines. I hope my enthusiasm is not short-lived and that a tsunami of varied and dynamic support will be unleashed on the visual artists who persist locally in their different and related capacities.
It appears that FineArt.gy set out to ambitiously promote visual art of Guyanese, no matter their locale, sex, and institutional affiliations. Thus, while the Guyana Women Artists’ Association (GWAA) is finding it difficult to garner support to exhibit as a group for being an organisation promoting the art of women artists despite the continued institutional and ideological biases against them as a collective, FineArt.gy cannot be denied on similar ground. Likewise, while the undercurrent of politics that permeated the Guyana United Artists (GUA) has made it difficult for the group to be perennially publicly active, FineArt.gy cannot be denied support on these grounds either. FineArt.gy has unabashedly established that it is about helping visual artists monetise and achieve livelihoods from their studio endeavours.
FineArt.gy made its presence known as a necessary entity after its launch about two years ago with a workshop for creatives on Intellectual Property (IP); a nebulous area for many creatives in Guyana. It is hoped, therefore, that in conjunction with more pop-up art sale exhibitions, more workshops will be hosted. Perhaps a further exploration of IP and a series on estate planning. If the number of exhibiting artists at ‘Beyond the Brush’, many of whom are youthful graduates of the E R Burrowes School of Art and the University of Guyana, is an indication of the fertile ground characterising FineArt.gy, there should be a well-spring of ideas to explore. My hope is that the community of artists Barrow-Browne has surrounded herself with will work collaboratively, with an understanding of the big picture of enabling visual art in Guyana. This may seem irrelevant to say, but both the GWAA and the GUA have suffered immensely from a lack of altruism in the vision of some of those entrusted to guide these respected groups.
