Contemporary Jamaican Art, circa1962 | circa2012, an exhibition to commemorate Jamaica 50th anniversary of Independence recently opened at the Art Gallery of Mississauga in Ontario and will remain there until September 8.

The exhibition was guest curated by Dr. Veerle Poupeye, executive director at the National Gallery of Jamaica. It explores changing ideas about art in Jamaica from the period from Independence in 1962 to the present day, placed in the context of broader developments in Jamaican culture and society.

“This is a unique opportunity to learn from the plurality of artistic visions in Jamaica,” said Robert Freeman, executive director, Art Gallery of Mississauga The exhibition features works by some of Jamaica’s most well known artists of the 1962 era such as Edna Manley, Barrington Watson, Albert Huie, Mallica “Kapo” Reynolds and Laura Facey.

It also features contemporary Jamaican and Canadian-Jamaican artists, including Ebony G. Patterson, Michael Chambers, Charles Campbell, Lisa Henriques, Marlon James, Leasho Johnson, Marvin Bartley, Michael Parchment, Oneika Russell, Patrona Morrison, Phillip Thomas, and Dionne Simpson, among others.

Also appearing at the Art Gallery of Mississauga are: A reading by author Rachel Manley (Edna Manley’s grand-daughter) and the author of Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood, which won the Governor General’s literary Award for non-fiction in 1997, on Thursday, Aug. 9 at 7pm. Honor Ford Smith, Associate Professor at York University discusses performance, popular murals and the struggle for public memory in Kingston,,Jamaica on Saturday, Aug. 18 at 3pm.

Performance and social movements are among Ford Smith’s special areas of interest.

Her publications include: 3 Jamaican Plays: A Postcolonial Anthology and Lionheart Gal: Life Stories of Jamaican Women. Author Olive Senior introduces you to various facets of Jamaican Heritage through her work Encyclopedia of Jamaica Heritage.

Senior is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Summer Lightning and Other Stories, Norman Washington Manley Foundation Award for Excellence in 2003, and the Gold Medal of the Institute of Jamaica in 2004. She will be at the AGM on Thursday, Aug. 23 at 7pm.