The National Gallery of Jamaica’s November 2012 announcement set out a biennial combining invited artists with a juried section open to Jamaican artists and artists living in Jamaica. Scheduled from December 9 to March 9, 2013, it also included tributes to recent Musgrave medal recipients Omari S. Ra, Bryan McFarlane and Ebony G. Patterson. Participants were eligible for the Aaron Matalon Award and consideration for acquisition awards.
Hyperallergic’s Claire Breukel considers Environment and Object: Recent African Art, a publication developed by curators Lisa Aronson and John S. Weber. She finds its attention to materials and artists’ social and ecological surroundings a useful alternative to familiar stereotypes. While valuing the historical context and an interview with Chika Okeke-Agulu, she questions the absence of contributors based at African universities among the book’s essay writers.