Olympia Art Centre, Kingston, Jamaica

Identity has always been a pertinent discussion throughout the history modern Jamaican Art. This issue has become even more relevant to young Jamaica artists, as questions of identity have extended the discussion to self, race, body, and autobiography.

 The show Taboo: Identities, Race, Sexuality + The Body, seeks to educate and to confront the Jamaican public about issues it has yet to tackle as valid constructs to a Jamaican Identity. The show seeks to uncover  discussions of taboo notions of identity as it relates to a Jamaican context. The exhibit will feature a body of work done by 10-12 Jamaican artists and 1 American Artist. The show seeks to host  a discourse with young Jamaican artists to whom the construct of identity is a continued discussion, through an exploration of the body, race and sexuality. The inclusion of an American artist opens up the discourse for an alternative perspective on these kinds of identity constructs.

The exhibit will be first staged at the The Olympia Art Center, Kingston, Jamaica with an official opening on June 26th at  6pm . The show maybe viewew at this venue on June 26th - July 26th  .  In the the Fall of 2008 the show will then travel to the University of Kentucky, Lexington KY (USA). This will allow the university and the wider Lexington communities, the opportunity to view works of art not only form another region, but also to educate the wider communities and the university community about   visual responses and experiences  in other geographic locations.


Artists involved in this project are:

Khepra Hatsheptwa, Marvin Bartley, Sheldon Clayton, Tricia Gordon Johnston, Keisha Castello, Oneika Russell, Kereina Changfatt, Sheldon Clayton , O'Neil Lawrence, Ainsworth Case, Camille Chedda, Ebony G. Patterson, Sean Gyshen Fennell .