By Sana Rose, Contributor 
'Three Daughters' works done by Gene Hendricks Pearson.
WHAT BEGAN as a two-person exhibition of clay, bronze and wood sculptures by the lesser-known Bongo and the well-known ceramist Gene Hendricks Pearson, became a solo display of the latter artist's works. The show was originally titled 'Discover the Artist' especially coined for Bongo. The Wonderland Fine Arts gallery on the Redbones Blues Café grounds on Braemar Avenue, New Kingston is host to the show. We are now offered for viewing Pearson's signature heads and masks as well as a porcelain vase and a teapot. Pearson's heads, a recurring subject, are consistent in form. The same head is repeated throughout; only the finish of the pieces varies. Glaze crackled on to the surface and given a metallic patina from raku firings provide the distinction. In two instances the head is relieved of its frontal/direct position and is turned upwards reminiscent of Edna Manley's Negro Aroused and Redemption Song, the Emancipation Park sculpture by Laura Facey-Cooper. But the features remain the same.
In some works such as Morning and Raincloud, the long serpentine locks lead from the top of the head and wrap around the long necks. In the case of White Bumpy Head where the sculpture sports Nubian knots, the long coils which wrap around the neck gives the impression of neckwear much like those worn by African tribes. In fact, we sense an Africanness is Pearson's heads including the masks, which were cast from the same mould as the heads but moreso in the physiognomy of his pieces.
More adventurous with his surface decoration in his masks than heads, Pearson either pierces them with holes intermittently and/or incorporates raised motifs evocative of the body and facial scars of African tribes. On most other works, the glaze adds the finish in white, green, red or purple in one instance. The mask Earthgroove is the sole piece in its natural clay colour.
While the patterning and colouration of the masks create interest, the most intriguing works are the two bronze sculptures, which fuse both head and body into appealing configurations. The female torso in Woman is devoid of a neck but fuses with its head at the point of the shoulders. Thighs bearing incised head and linear motifs support the torso. At the base are coils circumnavigating the work. With Three Daughters, three heads interlock with bodies. The organic design allows for smooth transition from one form to another and the oversized eyes of the heads (which is an ever-present feature of the artist's heads) remain closed. Although the head motif remains unchanged in these works, the interconnected forms add interest to the show, a variation that is always welcome when an artist, like Pearson, maintains the same image or approach over many years. The exhibition, which presents a small selection of the artist's works, continues until the end of April.
