Ras ishi butcher biography of barack
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“Secrets Unlocked”, Barbadian Ras Ishi Butcher solo exhibition in the Bahamas
The National Gallery of the Bahamas for the first time in its history devoted its entire exhibition space to the work of an artist from outside that country. is that artist.
Following the success of the Ishi solo exhibition “Secret Diaries” held last January at the Speightstown Gallery and Lancaster House, Holly Parotti, curator at the National Gallery of the Bahamas and David A. Bailey MBE, acting director of the Gallery, invited Ishi to show this work, along with an additional twenty paintings from private collections as well as from the National Art Gallery Committee Collection in Barbados.
Entitled “”, the show, which occupied two floors and six rooms in the Bahamian gallery, was accompanied by a recorded interview with the artist that was heard throughout the exhibition spaces. The Bahamian exhibition included a second catalogue to complement the hard-cover 90-page publication produced for the show in Barbados.
“Secrets Unlocked” received significant attention in the Bahamas press including two full-page, full-colour reviews.The exhibition ran for 3 months – April 29 to August 6, 2010. Ras Ishi was recently invited back to the Bahamas to conduct a workshop for art teachers. Then
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Artists Gather in Cuba
In the United States they have pop culture and Madonna, in the Caribbean we have Fidel and Bob Marley. Several of my friends: born in the late fifties, were named Fidel or Che, regardless of the political affiliation of their parents.
Going to Cuba is still a big adventure. As one friend told me: “Wait till you see the plane – it so old, it have curtains over the windows.” Sitting in the old Avro that did the crossing from Kingston was like being in a blender. When the food trays appeared, Ishi Butcher, a rastafarian artist from Barbados, looked at the food in dismay, pushing it aside, and said: “Dem Spanish, bare pork, man.”
But to be selected to take part in the Havana Biennial is a major opportunity for any young artist, quite apart from the excitement of visiting Cuba.
The Havana Biennial was established almost a decade ago as an alternative to the mainstream international art events such as the Venice Biennial. At many of these exhibitions, art from Latin America and the Caribbean was perceived as underdeveloped, of minor interest. The term “regional art” was disparagingly applied.
The Havana exhibition set out to show the seriousness and sophistication of Latin American and Caribbean art. It sought to es
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