Beyond Tourist Curios and Carvings — Caribbean Art Defies Stereotypes
In its fourth year, Art Off The Main continued to change the public perception of Caribbean art, transforming the widely-held view which equated Caribbean art with tourist curios. The show introduced the broad spectrum of Caribbean art ranging from the realist to the surrealist, the traditional to the modern, the intuitive to the experimental, and in media ranging from traditional materials to new media.
The event which took place October 4-8, 2007 is produced by Loris Crawford, the founder and Director of Savacou Gallery, and a pioneer in the promotion of Caribbean art. In explaining the rationale for Art Off The Main, Crawford, says, “it is the culmination of a long-held dream of staging a fine arts festival that bridges a Pan-African, Pan-Caribbean cultural identity. When we launched the fair four years ago many thought that there would be very little interest in Caribbean art.”
The farsightedness of this vision has been since been affirmed by the increased interest in Caribbean art among leading art institutions. The Brooklyn Museum opened a major exhibition in late August and three other major New York museums are collaborating on another major Caribbean Art show for 2008. Art Off the Main has profoundly changed and deepened people’s understanding of Caribbean Art”
The exhibitor list from prior years’ Art Off The Main includes Caribbean masters like Wifredo Lam, and Kapo, contemporary giants like Manuel Mendive, Edourd Duval Carrie and Francois Cavin, as well as accomplished Caribbean artists living in the United States such as Bernard Hoyes, Escoffery, Francks Deceus, Robert Reid and Eric Girault.
Highlights of the fair included the opening night gala which benefited the Museum For African Art, the preeminent curator of African arts dedicated to interpreting the art and culture of Africa and the African Diaspora. The Museum, temporarily located in Long Island City, recently broke ground for it’s new location in Harlem.
During the four day showcase, a benefit reception called Paint It Pink was also held to raise awareness of breast cancer in young women of color. Ticket sales were donated to the Young Survival Coalition, a community of young breast cancer survivors seeking to educate the public, and the medical, research and legislative communities on the issue of breast cancer in women 40 years old and under.
To brush up on your art terminology and learn about different techniques, check out Art Off The Main’s Learning Center by clicking here.
To view a slide show of the event, click here.