The walls of five floors of the Public Treasury Department, East Street are to be turned into a veritable art gallery in honour of Bahamian women.
Entitled ‘Bahama Mama‘, the exhibition will feature aspiring young Bahamian women artists some of whom have already made significant impact internationally.
It officially opens to the public September 26 at 5:30 p.m. This session will last for five months and can be viewed at normal office hours.
The Public Treasury Art Programme (PTAP) is an initiative of the Public Treasury Department, opposite the police headquarters,
“It aims to recognise and encourage young Bahamian artists, showcase outstanding local and regional art, and engender appreciation and commitment to the arts and art education in The Bahamas,” said the administrator, Mrs Laroma Seifert.
“One of our current goals, really, is to provide the art community, particularly emerging Bahamian artists, with a new venue to exhibit their work,” she said.
The Public Treasury plans to transform the common areas of its new five-storey complex into a space where emerging and established artists can display original work, she explained.
Curated by Keisha Oliver, the exhibition, ‘Bahama Mama’ recognises those who contributed to the arts and culture in The Bahamas.
A steller cast of young women artists, photographer, designers and writers have submitted works which investigate the historical, cultural and social aspects of Bahamian women.
They include Anina Banks, Apryl Burrows, Ashley Powell, Carla Campbell, Dede Brown, Kachelle Knowles, Keisha Oliver, Latisha Knowles, Leah Eneas, Leanne Russell, Lillian Blades, Lowree Tynes, Lyndah Wells, Mardia Powell, Sacha-Kathleen Hadland, Shorlette Francis, and Tiffany Barrett.
Leah Eneas, 29, is a crochet artist, actress and singer. She was 10 when she made her theatrical and dancing debut at the Dundas Centre in the musical ‘All My Chirren’, a Bahamian parody.
Since then, she attended HBCU, Fisk University where she majored in dramatics and speech/dance.
Her performances included ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’; Michael Pintard’s ‘Women Talk’; Winston Saunders’ ‘You Can Lead a Horse to Water’; and Nicolette Bethel’s, ‘The Children’s Teeth’.
Her debut American feature film, ‘Beneath the Blue’, was directed by Michael Sellers. She played the character, Elizabeth Duvey, and was the only Bahamian with a major speaking role. She recently wrapped up her second American feature, ‘Bahamian Son’.
To ceramicist Anina Banks, “art is the constant in my life equation. Regardless of the influence or medium, my work is a product of my core. It is comes from my soul.”
From an early age, her natural gifts were enhanced by intensive training in various fine arts mediums, including drawing, painting and printmaking.
A graduate of Drexel University, Banks’ employment as a graphic designer in the corporate world was short-lived, so great was her craving to create.
Banks changed mediums completely, and began working solely with clay. She loves natural textures, primarily those found underwater or washed up on the shore.
The pieces she formed were beautifully eclectic, invoking images of conch and sea shells, while paying homage to her island upbringing and surroundings.
Within the first year of showing her pieces, besides receiving strong accolades, Banks won second place in the Sculpture and Craft Category of the 2010 Pennsylvania ‘Art of the State’ Exhibit and was featured in a national American clay magazine.
Born in Freeport, Grand Bahama, visual artist Dede Brown studied interior design and photography at the Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, Georgia for four years.
It was in 2010, after three years as an interior designer, she made the life changing decision to become a self-employed artist, designer and photographer.
She was with the PopopStudios Centre for the Visual Arts Community in April 2008 creating a sculpture piece for the new phase of the Airport Project.
In 2009, she participated in her first exhibition with artist Dylan Rapillard, at the Central Bank of The Bahamas. The work exhibited was a series of portraits, exploring Brown’s fascination with the human spirit and how it is reflected in facial expression and human form.
In 2010, she unveiled her ‘Cherry & Puppet Series’ as part of another dual exhibition with Rapillard entitled ‘Dichotomy’, again exhibited at the Central Bank of The Bahamas.
This body of work explored the iconography of the cherry and the nature of women in pop culture, drawn as puppets. This series continued into ‘Peep Show’ an exhibition held earlier this year at PopopStudios.
Brown recently participated in an Artists-in-Residence exchange programme between the Ipswich & Colchester
Museum Service and A Fine Line Cultural Practice in England, and Popopstudios Visual Arts Centre, Nassau.
It is part of the ‘Stories of the World’ programme, a project at the heart of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
The residency is entitled Material Response and in it Brown is exploring her Bahamian identity in a foreign place by incorporating aspects of Junkanoo as a symbol that represents ‘Bahamianness’ and gives Bahamians that unique identity that is different from anywhere else in the world.
Lyndah Wells is a wedding, lifestyle and fashion photographer based in Freeport, Bahamas. Born in Lagos, Nigeria and raised in London, England, she fell in love with and relocated to The Bahamas in 2005.
With a background in both fashion and furniture design, Wells was reintroduced to photography by friend and work colleague, Dave Mackey. Her first shoot, she said, “was an awakening.”
Her talent has been recognised for the creativity and passion she delivers to each image.
With a wealth of natural beauty to work with, Wells has branched out to capture the beauty of the Islands of The Bahamas, in her own unique style.
“As a photographer, I bring to my work a unique background in fashion and design, using modern imagery techniques,” she said.
“I explore photography fully, what may seem ugly and uninteresting to some, reveals itself to me with inherent beauty.”
