The Mutual Gallery and Art Centre Ltd. proudly presents
New Works
Stafford Schliefer
Alexander Cooper ALEXANDER COOPER
STAFFORD SCHLIEFER
ALEXANDER COOPER & STAFFORD SCHLIEFER
Embrace
Ska Dancer
31 March – 29 April, 2011
Alexander Cooper Alexander Cooper was born in Enfield (St. Mary) Jamaica in 1934. His interest and love for painting began while watching his friends Ralph Campbell and Osmond Watson, two of Jamaica's most outstanding artists at work. A student of the Jamaica School of Art, he graduated in 1959 and went on to study at the New York School of Visual Arts and the Art Student League in New York. Alexander Cooper is well known for his love of displaying the richness and vibrancy of Jamaican life - its people, the landscape and moments in everyday life – as it is and as it used to be.His initial paintings were well received by the public and in art circles and in 1962 and again 1964 he won First Prize in the Jamaica National Fine Arts Competition. In 1983 he was the recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for outstanding contribution to Art. The crowning success of his career was in 2001 when he was awarded the Silver Musgrave Medal for Excellence in Art. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Jamaica including the National Gallery of Jamaica and around the world. His first exhibition abroad was in 1965 at the U.S. State Department in Washington D.C. His work has been shown over the years in the United States, Mexico, Canada and England. Selected Exhibitions 2003 Alexander Cooper: “Village”: Mutual Life Gallery Kingston, Jamaica 1999 Alexander Cooper in Washington, Organization of American States, Washington, D.C. 1999 Tribute to Mothers Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica 1993 Alexander Cooper “Dance” Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston 1990 Alexander Cooper “Nature's Way”: Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica 1990 Forty Years: Edna Manley School for the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston 1988 A.D. Scott: Art Patron & Collector, National Gallery of Jamaica 1986 Alexander Cooper, Tropical Flowers, Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston 1986 First Aniversary Exhibition, Contemporary Arts Centre, Kingston 1985 Cooper, Exclusive Erotica, Makonde Gallery, Kingston 1985 Alexander Cooper, Bolivar Gallery, Kingston 1983 Remembrance: An Exhibition of Jamaican Art, Commonwealth Institute, London, England 1982 Alexander Cooper, Upstairs Downstairs Gallery, Kingston 1979 Alexander Cooper, Jamaican Consulate, Toronto 1978-85 Annual National Exhibition, National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston 1978 The Passion of Christ, National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston 1978 The Print: Four Graphic Techniques, National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston 1975 Thirty Jamaican Artists, Mexico City, Mexico 1965 Alexander Cooper: Tosco Gallery, New York, NY 1965 Alexander Cooper: The U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. Major Awards 2001 Silver Musgrave Medal for excellence in Art 1991 Caribbean Academy of Art Culture “OD” 1983 Prime Minister Award for outstanding contribution to Art 1962-64 First Prize, Jamaica National Art Competition
Alexander Cooper
Care #2
Boat Ride
Alexander Cooper
Intimate Moments
Alexander Cooper
Jazz Man
Alexander Cooper
Farmer’s Info
Carnival
Stafford Schliefer Stafford Schliefer, self-taught artist, born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1939, has been painting professionally since the age of 28. When asked what motivated him to paint, Schliefer simply says that painting was like breathing for him. His career began humbly, by exhibiting his art on the hotel strips in Kingston and Montego Bay. The recognition from art critics allowed his work to move off the streets and into the art galleries and museums. Early in his career, Schliefer received two Certificates of Merit from the Jamaica Festival Arts Commission in 1970 and 1972 and a High Commendation Award from the Institute of Jamaica in 1971. His first solo art show was in 1971. Schliefer's art has been thematically mixed from the outset, including both figurative and abstract expressionist work. His paintings encompass a wide range of subjects, including erotica, Jamaican cultural traditions, and socio-political themes, executed in acrylics, oils, watercolour, mixed-media collage, and drawings. His paintings articulate a distinctive expressionist style. They are often energetically characterized by exuberant use of colour and motion with gestural brushwork. His depictions of Jamaican pocomania ceremonies, Jonkunnu masquerades, and sugarcane workers in the field are examples of this. A substantial part of Schliefer's art reflects issues relevant to the conditions of poverty and violence in the society, expressing his personal confrontation with same, in visual terms. Schliefer is currently living and working in Irish Town, Jamaica. Main Exhibitions and Awards Since his first exhibition in 1969 at the Jamaica Festival of Fine Arts, Schliefer has exhibited and internationally, and in group and solo exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Jamaica. His work has been in the Annual National Exhibition at the National Gallery of Jamaica consistently since its inception in 1984, and in the National Biennial Exhibition, held since 2002. His solo exhibits include annual shows at the Mutual Life Gallery in Kingston, Jamaica between 1983-2000, a 1989 show at the Contemporary Artists' Association in Kingston, and two shows in 1978 and 1981 at the Mohave Museum of History and Art, in Kingman, Arizona. His latest show was 'New Work by the Masters: Alexander Cooper and Stafford Schliefer', held at the Mutual Gallery & Art Centre in Kingston, Jamaica, 31 March-29 April 2012. His participation in international group exhibits includes the 1995-98 exhibit 'Caribbean Visions' which toured the USA; the 1976 United States Postal Service Bicentennial Art Contest (Second Place), held in Phoenix, Arizona, USA; and ‘Three decades of Jamaican painting' staged at the Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery in London in 1971. He was invited to represent the US in the 2nd World Black & African Festival of Art & Culture which was to be held in Nigeria in 1976. Over the years, various Jamaican Prime Ministers have selected his work as official gifts to the late Pope John Paul, former Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, US President Bill Clinton and South African President Nelson Mandela. Schliefer is listed in several biographies and art works, such as 'Who's Who in American Art' (1976 edition), 'Personalities of the West and the Mid-West' (1977-78 edition), 'American Artists of Renown' (1981-82 edition), 'Men of Achievement', 'Dictionary of International Biography' (Volume 15), 'International Who's Who in Community Service', 'Caribbean Visions: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture' (1995), 'Modern Jamaican Art' (1998). Important collections such as The John Deare Art Collection, one of the Vatican's 23 Papal Art Collections, The National Gallery of Jamaica, The Bank of Jamaica, the estate of the Right Hon. Michael Manley (former Prime Minister of Jamaica), as well as those of private and institutional collectors in Jamaica and elsewhere, bear examples of his work.
Stafford Schliefer
Guru Dancer
Stafford Schliefer
Jason
The Leaders
Stafford Schliefer
Jonkonno Dancer
Stafford Schliefer
Where Are The Men
Girl with Pet Dog and Red Dress
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