- Contributed'Daniel in the Lion's Den' by Ras Ibrak, acrylic on canvas board.
Sana Rose, Contributor
THE twenty-first intuitive art show at Harmony Hall Gallery in St. Ann, featured 10 artists, some of whom have been exhibiting with this gallery for many years. Dubbed 'Tribute to Zion', the exhibition's title gave the impression that artists would pay tribute to the late artist, Allan Zion, through their work. The small exhibition however, showed the works of an even number of male and female artists (five of each), who presented their characteristic themes of religion and culture.
The only exception was one of Michael Parchment's paintings, 'Tribute to Zion' which seemed to ponder the brevity of life with white, ghostly figures floating above flowers and colourfully clad people.
Most of the paintings in the exhibition shared the typical and distinct characteristics akin to intuitive art. Peopled images, which in some cases covered almost all of the space in the works; bright colours and flat, childlike rendition of figures filled most canvases. Illusionary space showing foreground, middle ground and background, could be seen in the works of Ras Ibrak, in his first showing at Harmony Hall and Jamaican-born, Canadian resident, Lenworth Mesquita.
The lone sculptor in the group, Zaccheus Powell, who works in cedar, presented carved sticks engraved with figures, numbers and letters along with 'Couple' a three-dimensional piece and 'Nanny and the Plantation', a relief sculpture with figures reminiscent of Kapo.
Comparable reminiscences could be seen in the similarity of the works of Albert Artwell and his wife, Deloris Anglin; in Ruth Brown's composition in the painting 'Orange Valley' to that of her father's, Brother Everald Brown and also in Beverley Oliver's themes and rendition of her images in thickly built-up oil pastel in relation to the work of her father, Milton George.
Equally similar in figural distortions but of no obvious familial relationship, are Michael Parchment and Geraldine Robbins. The floating figures in Parchment's 'Bob Marley and the Wailers' and 'Tribute to Zion' are akin to the elongated floating figure in Robbins' mixed media painting 'Bent out of shape'.
Housed in the small front room of the gallery, the show provided viewers with an intimate space to view the works of the artists who clearly share some artistic intimacy with each other given the various similarities and influences seen in their work.
Although the artists did not thematically explore the exhibition's title 'Tribute to Zion', the show managed to provide a spirited farewell to Allan Zion through the inclusion of the artist himself, who was represented by two paintings, 'Boats I' and 'Boats II'.
