Mangrove Mud Womp installed. Artist’s reception Wed. 8 Feb. 2012

Ft. Lauderdale’s Third Avenue art walk (Sat. 4 Feb.) the gallery will be open even though that committee decided to not include the university exhibition space on their official walk.

(Via Art & Code.)

The Global Caribbean Symposium Program began with an immersive topic “Intersecting Geographies: Sexing the Subject and the Nation State”. The panel was kicked off with a tough to-the-point reading by Sheri-Marie Harrison discussing, to put it simply, sexual exploits. The pace did not diffuse as a number of papers were presented representing diverse and eclectic experience-including an intriguing dialogue about the portrayal of the transvestite in Santos-Febres novel “Sirena Selena vestida de pena” by Diane M Grullon from the Department of Modern Languages at the Florida International University.

A second panel begins moderated by charismatic Miami gallerist Rosie Gordon Wallace featuring a distinguished panel of speakers of which Onajide Shabaka conducted an fascinating discussion on the presence of African American cemeteries and associated iconography-including radios, sea shells, crosses–some of which came from the last object the person was in contact with before passing within and outside of the Caribbean. The panel is continued by Selina Roman who talks about her duality as a ‘white person’ and a Puerto Rican person—who grew up not speaking Spanish—and how this connects to her perception of identity in her work.

The day ended with a treat…two powerful readings by respective authors Patricia Powell and Marion Bethel, which was a taste of what is to come at a formal talk featuring the two readers scheduled later during the conference at Books and Books in Coral Gables. <via: http://www.creativecaribbeannetwork.com>

COMMENT – Re: PUMA.CREATIVE AT THE GLOBAL CARIBBEAN SYMPOSIUM, MIAMI, U.S.A

As a participant I really enjoyed my co-panelists Onajide Shabaka and Selina Roman’s presentation and their contribution to the conversation on Pan-Caribbean and Pan-African art. Our papers on Francophone Caribbean visual arts (me), the practice of photography from a female Puertorican/American (Selina) perspective, and African American burial practices in the South of the US couldn’t be more diasporic in their approach. Rosie Gordon-Wallace did an amazing job as a moderator bringing in her experience as an art gallery director and a Jamaican living in the US. The exchange with the audience was equally stimulating. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Drs. Saunders and Pouchet Paquet and their hard working assistants for putting together a quality event. I salute Puma’s initiative in supporting the dissemination of Caribbean culture and arts.

By Jamie Malernee

Education Writer

Posted January 22 2002 

Ask artist Onajide Shabaka to explain his work, and a small, knowing smile will play across the features of this community college adjunct professor.

As one of three artists featured at Broward Community College’s African-themed art exhibit, Shabaka is accustomed to questions from the curious and the confused.

His artwork, primarily in the medium of photography, combines natural and supernatural subjects, everyday and strange images: a knot of roots, the carcass of a vulture, a fish-skinned water goddess.

“In general, I feel life in the spirit world is parallel to what we call the real world,” he tries to explain while standing in the fine arts gallery of the school’s Davie campus. “This is a mirror.”

As guest curator of the exhibit, Shabaka has pulled together various works to explore African spirituality in celebration of Black History Month this February. The exhibit opens Thursday and runs through Feb. 21.

Thursday’s reception, from 7 to 9 p.m., will include a lecture and discussion with Shabaka and Miami-based artist Edouard Duval-Carrie.

Duval-Carrie’s contributions to the exhibit include several spirit sculptures, or lwa, inspired by Haitian and African religious traditions. A series of paintings by Tremain Smith, a female artist from Philadelphia, uses earth tones and natural forms to explore themes of pregnancy and primordial beginnings.

Shabaka’s work is harder to define, although he says he is proud of his work. Various pieces refer to African spirits he has come to believe in, powers within nature he has stumbled upon during hiking trips, and Shabaka’s own ancestors explored through family photographs and letters found in a deceased relatives’ home.

Beth Ravitz, director of the fine arts gallery, calls the exhibit an important reflection of the lives and experiences of African-influenced artists. The unusual nature of many of the works makes the show even more alluring, she said.

“The purpose of art is to expose yourself to something new,” she said. “What’s the point if you’re not learning?”

Jamie Malernee can be reached at jmalernee@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7910.

BY MICHAEL MILLS

[In the spring of 2001], the Fine Arts Gallery at Broward Community College’s Central Campus in Davie showcased an eclectic retrospective of works by five full-time faculty members. Now the gallery weighs in with the fourth annual “Adjunct Faculty Exhibit,” an even quirkier and more ambitious show featuring the works of 16 artists whose affiliation with BCC is more tentative.

Their works, however, are anything but tentative. The show includes nearly four dozen pieces, and they run the gamut from sculpture and installations to photography and paintings in oil, acrylic, and encaustic. And gallery director Beth Ravitz (who also contributes a mixed-media installation to the exhibition) has done a fine job of juxtaposing the pieces so that they play off, and sometimes against, one another; most of the show evinces a natural progression.

Only Onajide Shabaka’s Installation, just inside the front door, really seems to inhabit this space. It’s a large section of wall painted black and adorned with sketches in white chalk surrounded by such items as snail shells, skulls, tree branches, and mysterious bundles of straw, leaves, and seedpods.

Ravitz has done an excellent job of assembling this show. And she has done so against considerable odds, because this boxy little gallery has to be one of the least-inviting art venues in Broward County. Given the obvious wealth of talent among the BCC art faculty members, it’s a shame the school doesn’t have a more hospitable place to show off their works.

photocredit: onajide Shabaka
“sacred bundle” (detail)

Adjunct Faculty Exhibit
Details: On display through March 15, 2001
Ph:954-475-6984
Where: Broward Community College Fine Arts Gallery, Central Campus, 3501 SW Davie Rd., Davie

newtimesbpb.com | originally published: March 8, 2001