Central Bank announces winners of 2014 open category art competition

Sat, Oct 18th 2014, 10:33 AM

This past Wednesday, The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBB) announced the first, second and third place winners of the open category component of its 31st annual art competition and exhibition. Setting this year's open category competition and exhibition apart from its predecessors, the 2014 competition administrators withheld a theme for the show.
The move resulted in what CBB Art Gallery Curator Antonius Roberts described as the "strongest ever" body of work displayed in the annual exhibition. Unrestrained, visual artists were given the freedom to select the works they believed would best reflect their talents and convictions. Open to Bahamian artists ages 18 and older who are not registered in secondary schools, the gallery's call was for artists to present their most outstanding works in progress or recently completed pieces.
"We encouraged every participant to submit something that they are working on, because we assume and we believe and we encourage young artists...to be working anyway, and if they're serious about their art, they should be working on a theme or a body of work that reflects their philosophy, their focus, their concept or the ideas that they've been pursuing through their art. And so we figured that if we allow people to present what it is they're working on, then in that way it's to their advantage, because then they will have a head-start as opposed to just focusing on a theme just for a competition," Roberts explained.
The curator and artist believes the result has spoken for itself.
"It's a very strong exhibition, and there's something in the exhibition for everybody," he said. "It really transcends all genres of art and every artist who participated really, really put their best foot forward."
Open to sculptures, drawings, paintings, prints, collages and other "pictorial presentations" from throughout The Bahamas, more than 30 applicants each submitted one piece supported by a portfolio. The winners were selected by a panel of judges comprised of Creative Nassau Co-founder and Owner of Doongalik Studios Pam Burnside, ceramicist Jessica Colebrooke, CBB Banking Department Manager Derek Rolle, architect Derek Paul, CBB Deputy Legal Counsel Stacy Benjamin and artist and former CBB Gallery Curator Heino Schmid.
Columbus, a Fairy Tale by Washington Irving". The winning piece plays on the mythologies associated with the voyages of Columbus and common misconceptions about his encounters with the Americas. In creating the piece, McKinney drew inspiration from coloring books - a prevalent medium in childhood learning. "See is for Columbus" is composed of crayon and marker drawings on paper and features fairy tale-esque creatures and tongue-in-cheek references to popular misunderstandings about the 15th century traveler.
"A lot of my work that I do, I do because I like to inform an audience and I think that [it] is important to have that conversation starter...in a positive way, so I used the idea of this coloring book that is very classic, and I created it the way I wanted to create it using elements of fairy tales to express the idea of this fictional story [of Columbus]," explained McKinney, who had only begun working on the piece a few months before the competition opened.
No stranger to the Central Bank Art Gallery, McKinney also won the bank's 2012 art competition.
"The inspiration for me entering the show was [that] I've always been a part of the Central Bank. I've participated in a few of the shows, so I just decided to enter [the 2014 open art competition]. I thought it was a good place to show the piece and...I really wanted to try to explore this idea, so I entered the show to see if my idea was worth working toward," he said.
The panel of judges certainly thought so. In addition to a $7,500 cash prize, McKinney has also been awarded a bespoke art competition pin designed by local jeweler Michael Anthony Kelly and an opportunity to host a solo exhibition in the Project Space at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas. Second and third prize winners, Julius Tinker and Kevvanna Hall, respectively, also took home special recognition pins, which reflect the bank's 40th anniversary.
Drawing attention to the achievements of all the competition's participants, Colebrooke addressed gatherers on Wednesday night in a speech that underscored the importance of constant professional development and tenacity.
In an interview with The Nassau Guardian she explained: "The point I'm trying to relay to the audience is that it's always difficult. It's a difficult process when judges get together; you have people from different backgrounds, different crafts, different trades, and having to look at the wealth of artwork that's produced in front of you and to determine who our winners are going to be...What a lot of people tend to do when they come to these shows is focus just on the winner, and everybody leaves feeling defeated. It was very important for me to address that [just] because you weren't chosen, that doesn't mean that your work isn't good. What it means is you either have to do some more developing, some more growing, or it's just not your time. It's not your season. Step back, look at what you've produced and see how you can perfect it.
"I'm an artist. I went through that process many times. I got rejected many time. I get rejected now, even as a professional...But I look at it like, 'OK, that's probably not the job for me'; or, 'That wasn't meant for me'; or 'My work needs to improve'. You have to look at it from a positive perspective if you're going to keep growing as an artist."
The Central Bank's 31st open art competition and exhibition will be on display until October 30. To find out more about the annual competition or the gallery space, visit http://www.centralbankbahamas.com/galleries.php. To learn more about gallery curator Antonius Roberts, visit http://www.antoniusroberts.com/.
"See is for Columbus, a Fairy Tale by Washington Irving" by 2014 open category art competition and exhibition winner Jace McKinney. PHOTOS: JODI MINNIS
"Puzzle Piece" by third place winner Kevvanna Hall. Photo: Jodi Minnis
"Lineage" by second place winner Julius Tinker.

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