Akyem-i Ramsay. Visual Arts Barbados

BARBADOS VISUAL ARTS

AKYEM-i RAMSAY SPECIAL EDITION

AUGUST 2019

For Akyem With Love and Respect

All images were taken from Akyem’s Facebook [pa

All images taken from Akyem’s Facebook page and are not in chronological order https://www.facebook.com/akyemi.ramsay

AKYEM-i RAMSAY

Photography Charissa Seward of CHULAPHOTO Charissa

PORTRAIT OF RAS AKYEM – “ART ANIMAL” BY - LAURA LIN HUTCHINSON One thing the brilliant, revolutionary Barbadian artist Ras Akyem makes clear is that he rarely distinguishes himself from his artwork. His art, from which he feeds, breathes and lives, expressed from the very core of his being, is filled with paradoxes of simplification and dark complexity. It is sacred and sensual and sacrilegious, it blows the mind and pummels the senses, seducing you with the pain and pleasure of the colour palette while beseeching you to shift your levels of consciousness and perception.

You may or may not relate to the universal themes of black struggle - the fight for survival and respect - or his peculiar iconographic language, but you must appreciate it’s raw energy, its sometimes “terrible beauty”….

As an Artist he is the consummate, sometimes consumed “Art Animal”.

PASSAGES IN A LIFE: Born in the 50s into the landscape of the Barbadian ghetto, Akyem sensed from early that he would be an artist and felt a kindred connection to famous artists like Picasso, whose work he was already familiar with at the age of nine, even sleeping with a book of his paintings under his pillow!!

In 1973/4 Akyem embraced the Rastafari faith and way of life and in 1979 he was accepted into the vibrant interactive artistic community of the Edna Manley School of Visual Arts in Jamaica..

After returning to Barbados he formed what would become a formidable and enduring relationship with another blazingly talented artist - Ras I-Shi. Out of this symbiosis they morph into ‘AkyemandIshi’, for years, one seldom referred to without the other. Sharing a mutual philosophy on life and Art, they begin the battle for Art and Artists to be recognized and respected like any other legitimate profession or institution. Refusing to be weekend artists or have a ‘day job’,they often had to choose between buying food or paint “from then we were committed to painting as the ultimate sacrifice”

The now infamous 1989 VEXX Exhibition was the clenched fist, the locked jaw, bared teeth; a defiant middle finger directed at the ‘establishment’ - the silent outrage of visual subversion. These bold revolutionaries were blazing a path and pushing their own parameters, trodding on hallowed ground and invading complacent psyches - rebels with cause!

Passionate, vibrant, raw, militant… the young lions had stood and roared…. the Art world in Barbados quaked!

Intent on the path of realizing their full potential they relocate to CUBA to enrol in the Instituto Superior de Arte from 1995 to 97.

Immersed in a different cultural landscape with its rich, poignant history, the stage is set for personal discovery and reinvention. Though fully appreciative of being within a society that treats its artists with honour and respect, there are challenges of language and conditions of social deprivation and confrontations with tutors who had difficulty accepting their peculiar aesthetic values and implementation of “a lot of drag and drip and passion and graffiti”, so very different from Cuban painterly traditions directly descended from Russian formalist schools of art - linear and logical. In the end they won over the critics and both artists’ work was selected for the very prestigious Santo Domingo Bienale where they won Gold!

Ironically, in revolutionist Cuba, Akyem and Ishi were the revolutionaries.

“ a cross section of a complicated man….”

A small frame and understated manner disguise a swirling mass of multiplicity and contained energy. He is a composite being willing to shred and dissect the layers of his instinctual selves and spew his innards onto canvas in an ephemeral visual language that is brilliantly provocative and beyond one dimensional comprehension. (see paintings) He is open and accessible yet remains enigmatic. Conscious and still committed to the ‘fight’ and plight of the stigmatised people of the Diaspora, the subversion of outdated and erroneous value systems and the ‘upliftment’ of the artist.

He loves life, the creative process and – even though he has been called misogynistic – women. muse.

Marijuana is his

He still enjoys liming in “Temple Yard” in Bridgetown, an area of commerce for the Rasta community, and in the ghetto.

He considers these to be places of inspiration, raw energy and the perpetuation of collective ‘black angst’.

In conversation, here in his studio, creative energy is contained, the restless mind shifts fluidly. He verbalizes himself smoothly, precisely… Akyem is the epitome of ‘articulate’.

His love of painting is beyond mere passion, he is so kinetically sensitised to the paint itself that certain colours evoke a response even in his taste buds. Art is his lifeline and the canvas is his home - the dwelling place of his spirit. “all the paintings are self portraits, even if it’s a landscape or still life…..it’s a characteristic portrait of something that ‘s going on inside of me….I don’t think of my work and me as being separate…”

He doesn’t justify or define his art, but is willing to share his own understanding of his self, the process and the purpose in which he invites our participation. The paintings, seldom ‘pretty’, instigate a gamut of responses from revulsion, wonder, bewilderment, even shock…with titles like “Nigger Section” “Dark Angel”, “Bitch”.

“If the intuitive becomes satisfied in the awe of the connection with the object, even if the intellect is not satisfied it is enough…

It’s important for me that it makes you feel something… not that you sit and talk about how delightful those flowers are over dinner, I want to make you vomit at the dinner table and remember your own misdeeds…”

Initially encountering his authentic visual language and peculiar iconography may indeed be puzzling - the bared donkey teeth, the barbed crown of thorns, the gloved fists, the obtrusive phallus, the profusion of incidental strokes - but when given the rare opportunity to see it in the context of a collective body, one starts to formulate a connection, to look for and find meaning… that is the compelling power of the work, the mastery of the magician, before you know it you are spellbound…

Akyem is indeed a shaman. Deliberately allowing the intuitive to override his intellect, he accesses the complex realms of non-verbal reality, primordial energy streams, and “power animals” embedded within the vastness of the human psyche. Transposing the rituals of the shamanic tradition to the dominion of the Artist is a brushstroke of genius!

As an artist in Barbados, “a space that doesn’t have much empathy or sympathy for visual expression”, the struggle to gain acceptance and respect, individually and for Art’s sake, has been long, hard and continual. The fact that his work can now command price tags as high as BDS$20,000 gives a cash value validation to the worth of that struggle and further entitlement to ‘nuff respect’. But as the barbed crown of thorns (see paintings) becomes the laurel wreath of success, Akyem hasn’t compromised his creative integrity or professional choices but remains true to his idiom and purpose. He doesn’t cater to market trends or what people think art should be, although he quite easily could, but rather he paints for himself and kindredspirits.

“If my work is selling it’s a real paradox …I’m surprised when people buy my work.

My paintings actually tend to be quite offensive…remember my art is subversive… I reinterpret (traditional images) and reinvent them in order to subvert the values that were used to denigrate us, and I do it in such a way that you’ll want to buy the work and have it…. so that’s the success of the denigrated.”

He has exhibited worldwide and gained international recognition yet Akyem - the artist, painter, poet, revolutionary, magician, griot, shaman - like his sometimes abbreviated figures, and seemingly unfinished pieces considers that ‘he is a work in progress, still becoming, incomplete, a point of endless possibilities, with no end in sight……….. "art is essential…. it has the capacity to give evidence to things that have no other means of manifesting themselves…”

Laura Lin Hutchinson Laura Lin has written features for most of the major glossy magazines including island Life, Maco and Shabeau. She did a series of catalogue portraits of various artists for the Art Collectors of Barbados and is the writer/producer of the award winning short film ‘Holding On’.

She is available to write/edit bios and profiles for artists. laurynhutch@hotmail.com https://www.facebook.com/llhutchinson

"FRUIT-BOWL" (detail) 60" x 72" acrylics on canvas collection: (HILTON BARBADOS )

"GOLGOTHA" (1990) 48"x 72" acrylics on canvas private collection (PARISFRANCE)

"MOBY DICK" Havana 1996 48" x 60" oils on canvas Private Collection (B'dos)

"SELF PORTRAIT" Jamaica- 1981 18"x 24" pencil on acid-free paper artist's collection (BARBADOS)

NYAH-BINGHI ELDER" Jamaica- 1981 Medium: Cement Fondu/ applied bronze surface Height: 14" Private Collection.

“ANGST" Jamaica- 1981 Medium: Cement Fondu/ applied bronze surface Height: 16" Formerly in the collection of the B'dos National Library Service, but subsequently damaged & destroyed!!! (sigh)

age 29 ! ( YOUNG RASTA LION )

“THE PRODIGAL RETURNS" Jamaica- 1981 Medium: cement fondu/applied bronze surface 18" X 24" private collection (BARBADOS)

Anya Stephen

an early sketch (1979) conte pencil on grey paper 12" x 12" artist collection.

MURAL: "Descent of the Golden-Stool" (2008/9) Location: Registrar Building UWI Barbados. oils on canvas

art-aniMAL" #10. acrylics on canvas

6ft x 7ft.

National Collection* (BARBADOS)

"Folkways" (detail) 1979

"art-aniMAL"....... at work! (livin' in my studio)

"SUBMERGED" acrylics (on acid-free paper) 18"x 24" private collection (LONDON)

"BAJAN OUTT-LAWS" (rude-bwoy series) 2018 28" X 34" acrylics & oil-stick on canvas. artist's collection.

FACE TO FACE (SHANGO)* 2005 72" x 72" acrylics & oil sticks on canvas private collection ( JOHANNESBURG - S. AFRICA ) #artaniMALstudio #painting #akyemi #BARBADOS

"MADONNA" Acrylics on canvas Private Collection (BARBADOS) #artaniMALstudio #akyemi #painting #BARBADOS

"SANTO" acrylics on canvas Private Collection

“BLU" #2. (1994) 36" X 48" oils on canvas Private Collection (France)

"GIRL READING" 36"X36" acrylics on canvas private collection (BARBADOS)

"GRIOT" #artanimMALstudio #TerraCotta #sculpture #akyemi #BARBADOS (private collection- Jamaica)

"ISHA-WAWA IN ZION" (1982) oils on canvas 14" x 18" Private collection (Arizona- USA)

"woman bathing- BATHSHEBA" (1982) Terra-cotta (local red clay) Private Collection

Rasta Yout" (1982) Terra-cotta ( local red clay) private collection.

"MEDICI BLUES" (detail- Michel'Angelo Series)

"SANTO" (detail) oil stick on acid free paper private collection (Singapore)

"SMOKIN' AH SPLIFF" #2 32"x 36" acrylics on canvas private collection (B'dos)

"BrownSkin Maid"

"NIGGA SECTION" #2. acrylics on canvas 44" x 55" private collection (BAHAMAS)

"DARK-ANGEL" #6 (Dark-Angel series) acrylics on acid-free paper 26" X 32" Private collection (S.AFRICA)

"CARNIVORE" #4 oils on canvas 32" X 40" private collection (Netherlands)

"SELF PORTRAIT" (smoking ah spliff)* acrylics on canvas 18" X 24" private collection (Netherlands)

"HEAD" #2 acrylics on canvas 12" X 12" private collection (Netherlands)

"HEAD" acrylics on canvas 12" X 16" private collection (Netherlands)

"SANTO" acrylics on canvas 14" X 16" private collection (Netherlands)

“LOVERS" ('98) acrylics & Charcoal on acid-free paper 36" x 48" Private collection (LONDON)

"KOW" (pastoral) acrylics on canvas 24" X 24" private collection (Netherlands)

"FURR-BURGER" acrylics on canvas 42" X 44" private collection (NETHERLANDS)

"BLAKK-KATT" oils on canvas 42" X 44" Private Collection (Netherlands)

"NAILS" 40" X 42" acrylics on canvas private Collection (Netherlands)

"ZEN" acrylics & collage on acid-free paper 22" X 32" private collection (Netherlands)

“Reclining Nude" oil on canvas (2001) 24" X 24" Private Collection (Netherlands)

"YOUNG gOD" acrylics on canvas 24" X 28" Private Collection ( S. Africa)

“SHANGO" acrylics on canvas 25" X 32" Private collection.

“DEAD STONE" acrylics on canvas 42" X 55" Private Collection (Bahamas)

"ANOTHER MESSIAH" acrylics & collage on canvas 50" X 55" private collection (Miami)

"SOFT SHOES" ( for Robert Seboka*** ) acrylics on canvas 36" X 42" Private Collection.

“UNTITLED" acrylics & collage on canvas 50" X 55" Private Collection (ICELAND)

"FACE TO FACE" acrylics & collage/text on canvas 44" X 52" Private Collection (South Africa)

"LOVE-SICK DOGG" #2 55" X 60" acrylics & collage on canvas Private collection (FRANCE).

"GOLDEN ARMZ" (Joe Louis)***** oils on canvas private collection.

"PIETA" #2 acrylics & Collage on canvas 50" X 55"

"Medici-Bluez" (Michelangelo Series) Detail........

early work from the mid-80's......... (ceramic perfume bottle) private collection.

"...... AND BENEATH MY BED" #2 Charcoal on canvas 32"x40" PRIVATE COLLECTION.

"......And Beneath My Bed" Medium: Acrylics & charcoal on canvas 25ins X 25ins.

"SUBMERGED" acrylics on acid-free paper private collection.

"Nile Valley Kin/KINGS" acrylics on canvas. private collection.

"Ghost Ships" Medium: oils on canvas 6ft. X 4ft.

"Moses" Medium: oils on canvas ('95)

"art-aniMAL" #11 oil pastel & charcoal on canvas

"al-TAR" (95) Charcoal on canvas.

Private Collection.

"SAD SWEET DREAMER" 28" X 40" (acrylics on canvas) Private Collection.

"Magdalene" 24" X 40“ (acrylics on canvas) 2004 private collection.

"SLIGHTLY TILTED" (diptych) acrylics & charcoal on canvas 28" x 48"

"IKON" 32" X 32" (acrylics on canvas) 2004 private collection.

"SELF PORTRAIT WITH NOSE RING" 28" X 36" (acrylics on canvas) 2004 private collection.

"NILE VALLEY KINGS" 32" X 32" (acrylics on canvas) privat collection.

"BLAKK-BIRD" 24" X 36" (acrylics on canvas) 2004 private collection.

"SPADE" 32" X 42" (acrylics on paper) 2003 Private Colection.

"VINCENT(Van-Gogh) & ME" (oils on canvas) 2005 private collection. (Havana)

"MAKING LOVE" 24" X 36" (acrylics on canvas) 2004 private collection.

“SELF PORTRAIT WITH TEAR" 32" X 42" (acrylics on canvas) 2003 Private Collection. (these were trying times)

"THORNS" 32" X 42" (acrylics on paper) 2003 private Collection.

“RASTA YOUT" (18" X 24" (acrylics on canvas) 1976 private collection.

Avery early work...... my "blue period" (lol)

“INTERIOR WITH GOLD FISH" 24" X 36" (acrylics on canvas) 2000 private collection.

“NIGGA SECTION" 36" X 3" (acrylics on canvas) 2001 (?) private collection.

“JAH-GLORY".... (1981) oils on canvas

"ADRIFT" #2 (32" X 32") acrylics on canvas (exile SERIES)

"ISHA-WAWA IN ZION" 1981 (private collection) oils on canvas.

"STILL LIFE WITH MANGOES" 12" X12“ (acrylics on canvas) private collection.

"BLAKK-BIRD" #2.

40" X 32“ (charcoal on canvas) 2011.

"QUEEN ICHIA TIYI" 2004 (private collection) acrylics & charcoal on canvas.

"RAG-A-MUFFIN" (1990) (stolen) oils on canvas.

"KING OF HEARTS" (2005) (private collection) acrylics on canvas.

“SANTOS" (for jack Johnson & joe "brown bomber" louis) 28ins X 32ins acrylics on canvas

"SELF-PORTRAIT WITH PIPE & NOSE RING" 2003 (private collection) acrylics on canvas

"Dark Angel" no.2 (series) acrylics on canvas....

"DARK ANGEL" no.1 (series) Acrylics on canvas....

"BROWN-SKIN MAID".. 1998 (private collection) acrylics & collage on canvas.

“GETSEMANE" - 1986 (National Collection) another early work..... Oils on canvas.

"ILL-GOTTEN GAINS" 50" X 55" – Mixed Media on canvas (Michel 'Angelo SERIES)

".........AND SOMETIMES I FLY" 55 ins. X 13 ft...... mixed-media on canvas.

"CARNIVORE" oils on canvas private collection- (BARBADOS)

CARNIVORE #1 (acrylics on canvas)

CARNIVORE #2 (acrylics on canvas)

"LOVE-SICK DOGG" no.2 medium: acrylics & charcoal on canvas.

"STUDIO- WITH SCULPTURE" acrylics on canvas private collection(BARBADOS) #artaniMALstudio #akyem-i #painting #BARBADOS

"blakk-Jacobin"...... acrylics on canvas

"LEFT FOR DEAD" (exile series) 54ins x 43ins. medium: acrylics on canvas.

“ADRIFT"......(exile series) 50ins x 61ins acrylics on canvas.

“MADONNA" - 1987 (private collection) acrylics on canvas..

"GRIOT" (blakk-story) (constructivist sculpture) multi-dimensional medium: assorted media- wood, metal and found objects.

"AVATAR" (constructivist sculpture) multidimensional medium: assorted media- wood, metal and plaster & flowers.

"NEO-PHYTE" ( sculpture/installation) multi-dimensional medium: assorted media - wood, metal, tar & plaster.

"AT WORK" medium: acrylics on canvas.

"FRIENDS" (by- ras akyem-i) oils on wooden-panel......... 1982. Jamaica.

"COUNCIL OF DREAD" (judgement) medium:acrylics on canvas.

" MADE IN THE 3rd.

WORLD" no. 3 (exile series) 48ins x 48ins medium: acrylics, collage and oil pastel on canvas.

"THE LAST JUDGEMENT" (Michel 'Angelo series) 55ins x 50ins. medium: multimedia on canvas.

"BROKEN WINGS" (exile series) 55ins x 50ins medium: acrylics & charcoal on canvas.

"PIETA“ (Michel 'Angelo series) 55ins x 50ins diptych--- left panel. medium: acrylics & collage on canvas.

"PIETA" (Michel 'Angelo series) 55ins x 50ins. diptych--- right panel. medium: acrylics & collage on canvas.

"MEDICI BLUES“ (Michel 'Angelo series) 55ins x 50ins medium: mixed-media & collage on canvas.

"HORSE-MEN & CHARIOTS" (detail) Medium: acrylics, charcoal & oil pastel on canvas.

"BLAKK LIKE NEFERTARI" medium: acrylics on canvas

"MADONNA OF SUTTLE St." - 1986 (early work) oils on canvas (private collection)

"FRUIT BOWL" (detail) 60" X 72" acrylics on canvas collection: (HILTONBARBADOS)

"....... AND A MULE" medium: acrylics & collage on canvas.

"BUDDHA-BEUYS" medium: mixed media on canvas

"BLAKK KING ASCENDING" (1994 ) 5FT. X 8FT. oils on canvas Private Collection (BARBADOS)

"Night-Spirit" 18" X 24" acrylics on canvas private collection.

Lifetime award for Ras Akyem The Committee for the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Visual Arts has selected outstanding artist Ras Akyem I Ramsay to be the recipient of the 2010 award. This year marks the seventh presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award In The Visual Arts, which was initiated in 2001 to give due recognition and honour to visual artists who have made significant contributions to artistic development in Barbados. In a Press release yesterday, the committee stated that it was felt that in Barbados, artists receive only a fraction of the acclaim given to other prominent achievers. “With the support of the Nation Publishing Company, the Central Bank of Barbados and other generous sponsors, the award is held every other year and the accompanying retrospective of the artists’ works are eagerly anticipated by art enthusiasts,” the committee added. Ras Akyem has had a prolific career as an artist spanning over three decades. From his childhood in New Orleans, The City, he knew he wanted to be an artist and has achieved his goal with vigour and perseverance. His work has been described as “brilliant”, “revolutionary”, “militant” and “authentic”. This “art animal” considers art as the essence of his being and he chose to pursue his art on a full-time, professional basis, determined to gain the respect he felt artists deserved. Akyem first came to the public’s attention when his powerful large painting, House Of King David, won the Art Collection Foundation’s Purchase Award in 1984. The following year his piece, Mother Earth, won the Caribbean Benson & Hedges World Of Art Competition. Explosive paintings But it was at the 1989 Vexx exhibition at Queen’s Park Gallery that Akyem’s and Ishi’s explosive paintings caused consternation among patrons. The DAILY NATION of June 1, 1989, reported on the exhibition as “arguably the most expressive local visual arts exhibition ever to be staged in Barbados”. Other notable exhibitions of Akyem’s work have been Havana – Antes y Despues at the Kirby Gallery in 1998 and some years later, Dark Angel at Zemicon.

Influenced by Rastafari, Akyem has used his art “as a tool to make social statements or to highlight social ills”.

Controversial though his art has been, his talent has been lauded locally, regionally and internationally, and his pieces are avidly acquired by private collectors and national collections. Over 30 of Akyem’s major paintings will be exhibited at the Grand Salle of the Central Bank from Sunday until October 23.

Rhonda Thompson rhondathompson@nationnews.com https://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/2279/lifetime-award-ras-akyem

13 October 2010

“….art is an ancient way of thinking; an act of magic……. an intuitive response to an ancestral/primal imperative, a passionate urge to create or destroy”………….

– Ras Akyem-I (95) The Act Of Painting…

I have recently discovered that the overt planning of an art-work, often establishes parameters/limitations which merely serve to restrict, confine and reduce the creative intuition to an exact-science; confining the imagination and blocking the path to potential discovery…. hence I commence my work with a vague sense of intent, which is only realized/revealed during the actual creative process!

In the “ritual” of making art, I seek to give evidence to something which has no other mundane means of manifesting itself; and always with the hope that the result (when it emerges) would surprise me …… consequently, in this new body of work I’m attempting to map/negotiate that “uncertain” space/terrain in the sub-conscious where reality exist with-out the burden of imposed meanings…. and could be defined by prerequisites other than linear logic……….

Major Themes…

(1) ….The “Blakk-Body” in exile, it’s amputated/disconnected lifeline from the ‘cultural-womb’ that once nurtured and nourished us….. the blakk ‘diasporic-body’ as “object & commodity” in western cultures.

(2) The interruption and sometimes total loss of the “Ancestral memory”, compounded with the torturous gradual decay of everything that defines its existence.

(3) Re-configuration and re-location of the “Blakk-psyche” in the new Global-village space….

(4) TEXT…. the use of words in the paintings is a ploy intended to establish oblique verbal gestures which serve to evoke or amplify visual experience…

Alternately, the text may also function as a mere spatial device, which assist in defining atmospheric perspective on a liminal two-dimensional picture plane……

(5) Exile Series:- These paintings explore, and attempt to articulate the exquisite loneliness as well as the colossal indifference that one experiences as an artist in a HOSTILE visual-space…. and especially when that space is defined as HOME …!

– ras akyem-i (art-aniMAL), Oct. 2008. https://freshmilkbarbados.com/tag/ras-akyem-ramsay/

Ras Akyem (sometimes called Ras Akyem Ramsey or Ras Akyem I Ramsey) is a Barbadian painter. A graduate of the Edna Manley School of Art in Jamaica, his work is heavily influenced by the Rastafari movement and bears resemblance to the paintings of JeanMichel Basquiat. His work is frequently exhibited alongside that of Ras Ishi Butcher.

References Biography Art Collection Foundation. National Art Collection Exhibition. Bridgetown: ACF, 1985.

“Setting Sails to New Horizons.” www.nationnews.com. Accessed June 16, 2018.

Black Jacobins at the Caribbean Pavilion. Bridgetown, Barbados: National Art Gallery Committee, 2011.

Caribbean Artists Today, 1994.

Cummins, Alissandra, Allison Thompson, and Nick Whittle. “Ras Akyem and Ras Ishi.” In Art in Barbados: What Type of Mirror Image?, 209–13, 235–36. Ian Randle Publishers,Jamaica, 1999.

“Diaspora-Now - Ras Akyem I Ramsey Bio.” Accessed June 16, 2018.

Gallery in Cork Street, and Barbados Investment and Development Corporation. Contemporary Art from Barbados. Bridgetown, Barbados: BIDC, 1997.

Hadchity, Therese. “Arts Ani-Mal RAS AKYEM-I RAMSAY : LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN THE VISUAL ARTS 2010 and Retrospective Exhibition,” October 2010.

Hadchity, Therese. Words on Paintings: An Exhibition of Art and Writing, Collectively Curated by Writers, Artists, Collectors and Art Critics, 2008.

“Barbados Honors Artist Ras Akyem I Ramsay.” www.nationnews.com. Accessed June 16, 2018.

Lewis, Samella S, David Gall, Joyce Daniel, Omowale Stewart, Akyem, and Woodpecker. “Interviews with Five Bajan Artists.”

International Review of African American Art. 7 (1986): 45–55.

National Commission for UNESCO of the Netherlands Antilles. Carib Art: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean. Curaçao: UNESCO, 1993.

National Cultural Foundation (Barbados), and Queen’s Park Gallery. The National Cultural Foundation Presents Now at the Queen’s Park Gallery February 16 to March 16, 1992, 1992.

Poupeye, Veerle. Caribbean Art. Thames and Hudson, 1998.

Ramsay, Akyem, Ishi Butcher, Rupert Roopnaraine, and Islington Arts Factory. Caribbean Connection 4: New Paintings by Ras Akyem Ramsay & Ras Ishi Butcher. London: Islington Arts Factory, 2004.

Thompson, Rhonda. “Lifetime Award for Ras Akyem." Nation News. October 13, 2010. Accessed June 16, 2018.

Trotman, A. Ashanti, National Cultural Foundation (Barbados), and Queen’s Park Gallery. The National Cultural Foundation Presents Now. St. James, Barbados: National Cultural Foundation, 1992.

Walmsley, Anne, and Stanley Greaves. “RAS AKYEM-i RAMSAY : Moses.” In Art In The Caribbean: An Introduction, 52. London: New Beacon Books, 2010.

External links The UWI Cave Hill Libraries: Sidney Martin Library Art Collection Online.

Ras Akyem I Ramsay – Barbados A graduate of Jamaica’s Edna Manley School of Art, Ras Akyem I is a veteran exhibitor throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, England, and the U.S. In 1996 Ras Akyem's paintings won the Gold Medal at the Third Biennial of Caribbean and Latin American Painting, held in Santo Domingo, and was part of the collective submission by Barbadian artists which won the Country a Gold Medal.

During 1995-1997 Ras Akyem successfully completed postgraduate studies at Cuba’s prestigious art academy, the University of Superior Arts (ISA). His work has been published and discussed in such publications as “Barbadian Art: What Kind of Mirror Image?” and “Caribbean Art”, by Veerle Poupeye. In 1998 he was awarded the Barbados Service Star in that year’s Barbados Independence Honors. Ras Akyem I is the recipient of the 2012 Caribbean Luminary of the Arts Award.

Ras Akyem From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search Ras Akyem (sometimes called Ras Akyem Ramsey or Ras Akyem I Ramsey) is a Barbadian painter. A graduate of the Edna Manley School of Art in Jamaica, his work is heavily influenced by the Rastafari movement and bears resemblance to the paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat. His work is frequently exhibited alongside that of Ras Ishi Butcher.

References Biography Art Collection Foundation. National Art Collection Exhibition. Bridgetown: ACF, 1985.

“Setting Sails to New Horizons.” www.nationnews.com. Accessed June 16, 2018.

Black Jacobins at the Caribbean Pavilion. Bridgetown, Barbados: National Art Gallery Committee, 2011.

Caribbean Artists Today, 1994.

Cummins, Alissandra, Allison Thompson, and Nick Whittle. “Ras Akyem and Ras Ishi.” In Art in Barbados: What Type of Mirror Image?, 209–13, 235–36. Ian Randle Publishers,Jamaica, 1999.

“Diaspora-Now - Ras Akyem I Ramsey Bio.” Accessed June 16, 2018.

Gallery in Cork Street, and Barbados Investment and Development Corporation. Contemporary Art from Barbados. Bridgetown, Barbados: BIDC, 1997.

Hadchity, Therese. “Arts Ani-Mal RAS AKYEM-I RAMSAY : LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN THE VISUAL ARTS 2010 and Retrospective Exhibition,” October 2010.

Hadchity, Therese. Words on Paintings: An Exhibition of Art and Writing, Collectively Curated by Writers, Artists, Collectors and Art Critics, 2008.

“Barbados Honors Artist Ras Akyem I Ramsay.” www.nationnews.com. Accessed June 16, 2018.

Lewis, Samella S, David Gall, Joyce Daniel, Omowale Stewart, Akyem, and Woodpecker. “Interviews with Five Bajan Artists.” International Review of African American Art. 7 (1986): 45–55.

National Commission for UNESCO of the Netherlands Antilles. Carib Art: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean. Curaçao: UNESCO, 1993.

National Cultural Foundation (Barbados), and Queen’s Park Gallery. The National Cultural Foundation Presents Now at the Queen’s Park Gallery February 16 to March 16, 1992, 1992.

Poupeye, Veerle. Caribbean Art. Thames and Hudson, 1998.

Ramsay, Akyem, Ishi Butcher, Rupert Roopnaraine, and Islington Arts Factory. Caribbean Connection 4: New Paintings by Ras Akyem Ramsay & Ras Ishi Butcher. London: Islington Arts Factory, 2004.

Thompson, Rhonda. “Lifetime Award for Ras Akyem." Nation News. October 13, 2010. Accessed June 16, 2018.

Trotman, A. Ashanti, National Cultural Foundation (Barbados), and Queen’s Park Gallery. The National Cultural Foundation Presents Now. St. James, Barbados: National Cultural Foundation, 1992.

Walmsley, Anne, and Stanley Greaves. “RAS AKYEM-i RAMSAY : Moses.” In Art In The Caribbean: An Introduction, 52. London: New Beacon Books, 2010.

External links The UWI Cave Hill Libraries: Sidney Martin Library Art Collection Online

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ras_Akyem

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SCAN ME

Published by Corrie Scott Barbados, West Indies www.corriescott.net