Exhibition of Guyanese art had successful opening in Caracas
- Castellani House
Stabroek News
December 1, 2002
An exhibition of Guyanese art titled ‘Togetherness in Guyana’ recently had a successful opening in Caracas, Venezuela, Castellani House has said.
The exhibition, first shown at the National Gallery, Castellani House, from May to August last year, opened at the gallery Anauco Arriba in San Bernardino, Caracas, from September 5 to October 30 last, featuring 40 paintings and sculptures by 14 artists. This was augmented by one work from the Guyana Embassy, Caracas, and nine from the collection of former Venezuelan diplomat in Guyana, Leonardo Canizales, a release from Castellani House has said.
The works, the release noted, covered a range from representations of Guyanese landscapes and nature studies, to abstract and semi- abstract paintings, to relief-carved and free-standing sculptures with symbolic, political and decorative themes. According to the release, there was a large audience at the opening event, including representatives from the artists’ community as well as Guyanese in Caracas, senior members of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry and a number of diplomats from the large diplomatic community in the city.
Among the diplomatic corps were Jamaican and Barbadian high commissioners and the ambassadors of South Africa, Greece, Holland, Spain, Korea and Honduras.
Meanwhile the Dutch Ambassador has extended an invitation for the exhibition to be mounted in Curacao, after it drew a large number of visitors in Caracas, the release said.
The exhibition was originally proposed by Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then the National Gallery invited 19 artists to submit works for the project of which 14 responded. These were Philip Moore, Oswald Hussein, Desmond Alli, Winslow Craig, Maylene Duncan, Margaret Dookun, Merlene Ellis, Seunarine Munisar, Josefa Tamayo, Gary Thomas, Francis Ferreira, Doris Rogers, Morag Williams and Ron Savory. The additional works in Caracas were those of Moore, Stanley Greaves, Hazel Shury and Dudley Charles.
Curator of the National Gallery, Elfrieda Bissember, accompanied by the gallery’s technician, Leon Howard, travelled to Caracas to mount the exhibition in collaboration with Anauco Arriba’s director, Mariavelia Savino.
Two of the exhibiting artists, Duncan and Ellis, attended the exhibition after been selected by a vote among the artists. They received airline tickets and accommodation, compliments of Castellani House and the Guyana Embassy in Caracas respectively, while the stay by the curator and the technician was part-sponsored by the Venezuelan National Council on Culture, release added.
