‘Atlantic School’ show opens tonight at Masterworks

Four Bermudian artists have joined forces with the same number from New York City to present part one of what will be a two-part cultural exchange dubbed ‘Atlantic Union’. This takes the form of two exhibitions, each of which will feature the work of all eight artists. The first opens at Masterworks in the Botanical Gardens this evening. The second exhibition, when the Bermudian artists will travel to New York to co-show their work, will take place at the Emergence Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the autumn.

Participating Bermudian artists are Meredith Andrews, James Cooper, Jon Legere and Kate Waters. Their US counterparts are Greg MacAvoy, Liz Sullivan, Noah Post and Bernard Klevickas. Collectively, their work will include sculpture, painting, photography and collage.

The purpose of the two-part exhibition is to introduce the current generation of American artists into the Bermuda community, and expose Bermudian artists to the New York City art megaculture.

Tonight’s opening, from 5.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m., will coincide with the weekly ‘Live in the Gardens’ programme adjacent to Masterworks, which runs from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tonight’s theme is reggae. The music is live, and food and drink are available.

Summer music theatre programme focus on children

Exploring the worlds of acting and dance to the rhythms of hip-hop, poetry and music are on the cards for Bermuda’s youngsters this summer, thanks to the School for the Performing Arts which is bringing in US master teachers Jacquie Bird and Kent Jackman, who between them have years of experience in New York City, to lead an exciting music theatre programme.

The programme will include jazz/funk and musical theatre (dance) technique, along with improvisational acting, creative writing, and theatre games.

Acting lessons designed to improve students’ ability to use their imaginations, bodies, and voices as dramatic instruments will combine with dance classes designed to develop poise, discipline, rhythm, and a basic movement vocabulary.

Master teacher/choreographer/performer Ms Bird will offer ‘Mixed Bag Jazz’ — a journey through the different genres, including hip-hop/jazz funk, swing, musical theatre and modern jazz/lyrical. Emphasis will be on musicality, technique, performance values, and just plain fun.

She has conducted workshops worldwide, and her performing credits include Broadway, film, stage, and television.

Actor/director/playwright Kent Jackman, who has more than 20 years of arts education experience, will offer a personalised, Stanislavski/Spolin-based blend of theatre games and exercises, improvised role play, scene study, and basic playwriting skills from which students of all ages will have a comprehensive introduction to the dramatic arts. The music theatre summer camp will be held from July 2 to 20 at United Dance Productions’ Alexandrina Hall studio, 75 Court Street. Classes will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Friday, and children aged ten to 16 are eligible. The fee is $125 per child per week. For further information 734.1460 or e-mail info[@performingarts.bm.

Harriott ‘Monotype Prints’ at the Edinburgh Gallery

Eighteen months ago Kathy Harriott became absorbed in making monotype prints — one-of-a-kind prints pulled from glass. As the collection grew, she wondered what she would do with them. Today, the answer is clear: a solo exhibition in the Bermuda Society of Arts’ Edinburgh Gallery.

In all, Ms Harriott is showing 18 acrylic on paper prints, ranging in size from 21inches by 21 inches to 40 inches by 40 inches under the title, ‘Monotype Prints’. The artist defines this body of work as primarily “about colour and experimenting with the medium”, and says many of the prints “have the appearance of subtle textures, while others have extraordinary depth”.

This body of work is unusual for Ms Harriott in that the prints can be hung on a wall, whereas past creations have been largely three-dimensional, and incorporating such materials as screen wire and barbed wire — not, she admits, ideally suited for a domestic environment, or amenable to dusting.

Aficionados of such works, however, will be pleased to know that the artist is currently working on a series of wedding dresses — “sculptural pieces that will be impossible to dust”.

* ‘Monotype continues through June 27.

New exhibition of photos and illustrations at Elliot Gallery

Meredith Andrews and Sami Lill have combined talents to present their first joint exhibition, ‘Photography and Illustration’, now underway at the Elliot Gallery in Devonshire.

Professional freelance (and former Royal Gazette) photographer Meredith Andrews is showing both black and white and colour images, while professional art director Mr. Lill is a mixed media artist and illustrator.

Miss Andrews black and white images invite the viewer to share what she describes as “unique moments (which) cannot ever be replicated”, while her colour images document people and places she has visited during the past year in Europe, North and Central America.

Some are quite large and imposing in scale, while others are small and intimate, with a single figure sharply defined against a brilliant backdrop. A small child peering at the world with large, dark eyes full of hope and wonder, a shiny vintage car, a textured, multi-coloured blanket are among the images which caught her eye in her extensive travels. “The interaction between people and the inanimate world around them makes for an intriguing relationship that almost always, when carefully observed, produces visual gems,” the photographer says. Miss Andrews regards seven images as “stars” of the show, all of them C-type digital prints, mounted and sealed behind plexiglass in New York, which makes them immune to mildew in Bermuda.

The framing method was so chosen because the photographer regards her work as unconventional and she felt conventional framing was inappropriate. Mr. Lill’s mixed media paintings and illustrations, on the other hand, are anything but “traditional”, with their undertones of surrealism and whimsical flights of fancy.

Indeed, he describes his work as “the result of the serendipitous marriage of classical skill and my interest in graffiti and cartoons”, and acknowledges that his style is “loose and irreverent”.

“By adhering to a minimalist design aesthetic, sparing use of colours, simple cropping, and lack of complicated compositions, my works are often intriguingly simple,” he says. “What isn’t there is almost as noticeable as what is.” Perhaps the most noticeable work is a surfboard which Mr. Lill refinished and illustrated with various characters.

* ‘Photography and Illustration’ continues through July 10. Gallery hours are 10.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, or by appointment.