FUZE Art Expo

TERN is a contemporary art gallery with a focus on emerging and mid-career artists from The Bahamas and the Caribbean. The core mandate of TERN is to operate and maintain a public gallery for the exhibition of works from a global network of artists, to collaborate with partners regionally and internationally, to encourage the development of the local art market and to contribute to the expanding international contemporary art market in the Caribbean.

For the last twelve years, The Fresh Milk Art Platform has supported excellence in the visual arts through residencies and programs that provide Barbadian and Caribbean artists with opportunities for development and foster a thriving art community. The Fresh Milk Art Platform with showcase Versia Harris and Kia Redman, exceptional, forward thinking multimedia artists whose practices display layered interpretations of what “Caribbean art” can be, challenging limitations and stereotypes by interrogating themes such as identity, fantasy and the physical and social landscape of Barbados and the region.

Sixty 2 Sixty is a contemporary art gallery located Downtown Nassau, representing emerging and established artists. It was founded by artist June Collie on the premise that art, artists, and creative culture offer significant value in our society. Their mission is to support artists and cultural organizations to engage people of all ages and backgrounds to view and create art.

I.C.E. Gallery (Incubator for Collaborative Expression) functions as a space giving access and opportunity to developing young adult artists, exposing them to the larger world of Bahamian art. Since founded by Antonius Roberts, its inception has shown works by many young artists and hosted collaborative shows with outside organizations. Not limited to visual art, the space has been home to musical and poetic performances as well.

The visual art movement in the Caribbean Atlantic is rich with talent and offers savvy investors the opportunity to invest as the market transitions from regional to global. Black Pony Gallery intends to gain awareness of and appreciation for these artistic talents by featuring emerging to established artists who reside in the Azores, Bermuda, Cuba, The Bahamas, Cayman, and Turks & Caicos. Black Pony Gallery is an online gallery with a diverse catalogue of artwork available for purchase, the website presents an overview and portfolio sampling of each artist.

MESTRE PROJECTS was founded in 2010 by Jose Mestre, with a core philosophy of collaborating and building temporary dynamic exhibitions with historical, contemporary, and emerging artists around the world. In 2017, Mestre Projects settled its permanent exhibition space in The Bahamas, focusing on an international program inspired by the talented artistic community of The Bahamas. Mestre Projects gallery programming exhibits Bahamian, Caribbean, and established international artists.

Master Artist, nation builder and cultural icon, Mr. Antonius Roberts OBE, is a conservationist and architect. Founder of Hillside House and Project I.C.E. (Incubator for Creative Expression), his mission is to conserve, preserve, restore, and build. As Director of the new creative space The Gallery & Wine Bar in Nassau Cruise Port, he is ever-assisting in the growth of the Bahamian creative landscape.

Interdisciplinary artist who explores themes of nostalgia, masculinity, and otherness using drawing, painting, and assemblage. Schmid reimagines personal narratives to create unique stories that illustrate the intricacies and malleability of the Bahamian and wider Caribbean diaspora.

A multi-media artist and performer, using digital + analog collage, music and motion media. Her work, in all of its manifestations, is an exploration and celebration of her intersecting identities and a rejection of the one-dimensionality so often grafted onto ideas of Blackness, Womanhood and West Indian heritage.

A contemporary artist who explores the ideas of gender identity, cultural preservation/ production, and social relations within the black community. Her approach is both masculine and feminine with the black male figure as her main subject matter.

Renowned for his paintings and mixed-media collages, Jason describes landscapes and journeys in his work. Meandering lines indicate topography and repetition, while floral outlines suggest, but do not illustrate, intimate places and spaces. The result is a body of work not self-conscious about describing specific location or time, but rather concerned with shaping new geographies.

Art Philosopher, mixed media artist, muralist and curator, Angelika is well-known for her ‘Hope Is A Weapon’ brand that is used for resistance, relief and comfort. Her fine artwork focuses on personal memories, human interaction, and familial relationships, through the use of multiple materials. She finds fulfillment through her mural projects as she leaves marks of hope through each brush stroke.

Through her use of vibrant colors, Akilah is a Contemporary painter from Barbados who celebrates the black Barbadian experience, while bridging the gap between the realistic and idealistic view of her hometown. While showing the diversity of black natural hair and all the ways it can be embellished, she adds flavor to her art by adding native Caribbean fruits and trees.

Danny Sangra creates. That’s what he does. He draws. He paints. He designs. He writes. He takes photographs. He makes films, some of which are commercials. As an artist, he’s worked with The Beatles, Hermès, Sony, Burberry and Nike among many others. As a film-maker, he’s produced work for Mercedes-Benz, Vogue, Balenciaga and more, and he had his first Hollywood premiere with ‘Goldbricks in Bloom’ in 2016. He also makes short films, many of which seem to form parts of a mysterious larger, interconnected story. And that’s probably true of all of Danny’s work. All we know for sure is that everything he does has one thing in common – it’s very Danny Sangra.

Heino Schmid (b. 1976, Nassau, The Bahamas) completed his MA in Fine Arts from Utrecht Graduate School of Visual Art and Design in The Netherlands in 2006. A founding member of POPOPStudios, Schmid emphasizes collaboration and the activation of space throughout his practice. These collaborations usually surmount into exhibitions such as ShowOff with Tessa Whitehead in London, UK. Schmid exhibited with POPOPStudios at VoltaNY in 2014. Schmid has participated in exhibitions throughout the Caribbean region, most notably, Out of Place curated by the art collective Alice Yard in Trinidad. He recently participated with Alice Yard at documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany. He is currently an associate professor at the University of The Bahamas.

Ronald Cyrille (b. 1984, Guadeloupe) is a visual artist and muralist. His approach is a combination of reliefs, Caribbean landscapes, and animals from his bestiary. His characters are sometimes two-headed, sometimes with disproportionate limbs or composed of tree branches, leaves or attributes of animals living in the Caribbean basin. The Kreyol dog is one of the main characters in his pictorial narratives. He expresses the landscape that surrounds him. He questions this society. He paints what undermines it and also who animates it. Color plays an important role in his compositions by bringing dynamism and energy. His compositions are rich and prolific – the representations of movement, in a realistic way but close to an unreality and a form of surrealty bring a singular strength to his achievements.

Barbadian artist Versia Harris received her BFA in Studio Art in 2012. She has done a number of residences in the Caribbean and North and South America and has exhibited in London, China, Nigeria, Moscow, Michigan and Aruba. She was awarded a Fulbright Laspau Scholarship in 2017 and received her MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan USA in May, 2019, where she also earned a Mercedes-Benz Financial Services New Beginnings Award. In 2022, Versia took part in Documenta15 with Alice Yard and exhibited in Grimmwelt Museum in Kassel, Germany. She continues to exhibit internationally, while teaching at The Barbados Community College.

Kia Redman is a Barbados-based creative professional. As with many creatives, Kia’s career has travelled along many interconnected paths. As an artist, she has participated in shows and residencies across the Caribbean and Europe. Most notably the Caribbean Cross Residency in Haiti and Contested Desires which spanned across four European countries and Barbados. As a filmmaker, she has been selected for festivals across the region, Canada and China and has won many awards for her debut short film Roots|Routes. As a camera operator and technical director, she works with Oversight Corp. to live stream entertainment events, press conferences and official government proceedings.

June Collie (b. 1986) is a Bahamian visual artist and gallery owner based in Nassau, Bahamas. Often working with the mediums of paint, film and photography, Collie’s work centers the joy of family and Black womanhood through an Afro-Caribbean lens. Over the years, she has been invited to participate in international exhibitions such as The 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia at the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice, Italy, and the Rochester Contemporary Art Center in New York, as well as her works have been collected in the Luciano Benetton Collection “Imago Ipunm” in Italy.

Born in Nassau, Bahamas in 1988, Deimé Ubani has a rich cultural heritage as she is of Bahamian, Barbadian, and Nigerian descent. She has always had a passion for art, using it to capture memories, cultural heritage, and generational legacy. Abstract art has always caught her attention, as she discovered early on that different colors evoke different emotions. She has continued to explore abstraction, using various mediums to create balanced pieces.

Kenel Augustin is a talented artist from Nassau, Bahamas. He has participated in numerous art competitions, including the major Central Bank of the Bahamas competition where he won first place in 2011, second place in 2012, and third place in 2013. During this time, he also graduated from high school and volunteered at charitable events and art exhibitions such as the Salus Project and Empty Bowl. Mr. Augustin’s artwork is known for its expressive use of color and shape.

Born in New Providence and raised on the island of Andros, Navarro Newton fell in love with nature and the creative arts at a young age. Newton’s creative practice is informed by the potential of a medium to create subtle nuances in opacity and texture. The work builds a narrative from shapes suggested by the movement of media on a surface, directed through incidental and imagined compositions. Newton continues to create work based on theories of existence, time, and examination of self.

Alia Tamar Knowles (Sapita) is a Bahamian-Colombian ceramicist who is dedicated to preserving the traditional methods of creating ceramic pieces from her ancestral lands. Alia’s sculptures are based on traditional vases, bowls, and pots that have been transformed with markings and carvings that pay homage to her ancestors’ native style. Her focus is mainly on the actual make-up of the clay, and she uses minimal to no glaze. Through her research on how her ancestors created pieces, Alia has gained insight into the sculptural and spiritual significance of the pieces. She is committed to finding ways to make ceramics more sustainable in a world that is becoming increasingly tech-forward.

David Gumbs is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist from the Caribbean island of Saint-Martin, based in Martinique. Recent projects include his Manifest EU European award, the Mondes Nouveaux national awards for his project Ethno Spirits, the BAC Sonic Clinic exhibition at Mocada NY. His participation to the Zonamaco, the JustLX, and the JustMAD art fairs. He continues to participate in numerous new media festivals in Europe and in France. David Gumbs is a faculty member at the CCA visual arts school where he teaches Interactive Media, Motion Design, and Mix-media Design since 2009.

Born in Saint Martin, Shamika work speaks about child abuse in social services in Saint-Martin. Growing up as a foster child in the very same system, she realized she was in need for maternal love and a healthy family environment. From the nursery to the foster families. In her painting series, childhood Trauma and anxiety are expressed through very colorful and fearful dark sceneries. They are populated by monsters, creatures and entities that tell children imaginary and hers. It is a testimony, a ritual of passage and of liberation that frees her from a traumatic past so that it can be witnessed without fear.

Jordanna Kelly (b.1992, Nassau, The Bahamas) is a multi-media artist. Kelly utilizes ephemeral floral and figurative patterns and imagery with unexpected and often industrial material; she uses electric colors but applies them sparingly; the result is delicate and assertive compositions and assemblages. She has completed two Solo Shows, the first, ‘Bugs, Blessings, and Barriers’ was the result of her 2016 win at the Central Bank of the Bahamas, and her second show, OVERWHELMED, was completed in 2018 at the D’Aguilar Art Foundation.

Charles Campbell is a Jamaican born multidisciplinary artist, writer, and curator whose practice animates the future imaginaries possible in the wake of slavery and colonization. His artworks, which include sculptures, paintings, sonic installations, and performances, have been exhibited widely in Canada and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Vancouver Special, Disorientations and Echo at the Vancouver art Gallery, Fragments of Epic Memory at the Art Gallery of Ontario, and The Other Side of Now at the Perez Art Museum Miami. Campbell is the recipient of the 2022 VIVA Award and the 2020 City of Victoria Creative Builder Award. He holds an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmith College and a BFA from Concordia University. He currently lives and works on lək̓ʷəŋən territory, Victoria BC.

Stanley Burnside (born 1947, Nassau, The Bahamas) is an established painter and sculptor and has been an important artist and leader in the Bahamian art community throughout his career. Burnside’s work tackles political and cultural patterns, and often draws inspiration from the role of the matriarch in The Bahamas. His artwork is distinguishable by what he describes as his “use of elemental and mystical symbolism rooted in his African heritage.” In addition to his yearly shows in The Bahamas, Burnside has exhibited widely in venues such as France, Ecuador, Bermuda, USA, Venezuela and The Dominican Republic. His work can be found in collections such as the Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC and the Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo.

Keith Thompson (b. 1996, The Bahamas) He pursued an AA of Arts at T he Bahamas, choosing instead to branch out into a more robust practice. Thompson is a studio artist, curator, and framer. Thompson creates works about his experience growing up in a neighborhood rife with crime and gang-culture. His paintings exercise his own dread of easily falling into criminality. His works lend to cultural conversations that have been neglected or set aside due to socio- political stifling, thus giving a voice to those without the platform or courage to speak.

Amaani Hepburn (b. 2000, The Bahamas) is an emerging artist based in The Bahamas. Within her practice, Hepburn seeks to explore the relationship between the Caribbean’s natural environment and the people who occupy it. Raised as a devote Muslim, Hepburn draws from her personal experiences and uses the matriarch as a lens for exploring her community and re-examining her own femme identity.
Currently, Hepburn uses photography, painting and writing to capture and document intimate moments within her environment and community as she strives to memorialize them in their most honest form. Hepburn received an AA in Art from University of the Bahamas and has participated in various exhibitions in the Bahamas.

Matthew David Rahming (b 1997 The Bahamas) is an emerging interdisciplinary artist. Rahming considers himself an expressionist whose process is heavily rooted in introspection and observation. Drawing reference from both living and lived in environments, Rahmings work often has undercurrents and overtones of violence and fragility, yet also speaking to a kind of permanence and the diligence of beauty. The use of material and symbolism are often a means to stretch tensions integral to the artist conversation, as well as to framing the perspective of the audience. But are always an extension of Rahming´s particular reinterpreting of his landscape. In 2022, Rahming’s work was chosen to exhibit in the Tenth national exhibition at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas. In 2023 Rahming had a solo exhibition of sculptures paintings and etchings at the D’Aguilar Art foundation titled “I know a river.”

Deborah Jack, is a St. Maarten and Jersey City based multi-disciplinary artist whose work is based in video/sound installation, photography, painting and text. Her work engages a variety of strategies for mining the intersections of histories, cultural memory, ecology and climate change. Her current practice connects the effects of the hurricane storm surge in relation to coastal erosion, the saltwater inundation of intertidal spaces She imagines these rhizomatic, protective intersectional landscapes and wetlands as sites of resistance. This altered landscape, post surge, though temporary, is an exciting conceptual space regarding the intangible memory of water as it intersects with the land and the people who live there.

Marlon Griffith (b. 1976, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) started his artistic practice as a Carnival designer—a “mas’ man,” as Trinidadians would call him. This background deeply shapes his work as a contemporary visual artist, which has performative, participatory, and ephemeral characteristics that derive from Carnival. Griffith’s work is based upon a reciprocal dialogue between ‘Mas’ (the artistic component of the Trinidad Carnival) and art as a means of investigating the phenomenological aspect of the embodied experience: it is situated at the intersection of the visual and public performance. Experimenting with fundamental questions in perception, Griffith’s work interrogates contemporary culture outside the traditional pitfalls of representation. Operating outside the context of Mas’ Griffith performative actions are stripped down to their basic form and abstracted to create new images and narratives that respond critically and poetically to our socio-cultural environment.

The portfolio of HezronH consists of acrylic on paper, canvas, and digital paiting, adapting both traditional and modern painting mediums to his signature style. His art is laden with vibrant colours that echo Fauvist palettes. Drawing inspiration from collecting comics as a youth to his everyday adult interactions, he bridges youthful vibrancy and rule-breaking with the depth of an individual’s search for belonging in a region that is under-represented on the art world stage. As one of Turks and Caicos’ most prolific artists, he has exhibited in cities across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Trinidad & Tobago at CARIFESTA, Portland (USA), and at Art Takes 2021 (NYC), a juried completion hosted by SeeMe. HezronH has been featured in several publications, such as Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Wacom’s “The Next Level” and Turks and Caicos Magazine.

Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, Niels Reyes is a talented artist who graduated from painting at the Higher Institute of Art (ASI) in 2006. His paintings are powerful, which may be why he has had over ten solo exhibitions in Cuba, Spain, Switzerland, and Panama. In group exhibitions, he has been showcased in Cuba, Denmark, France, USA, Spain, Mexico, China, Finland, Canada, Panama, Austria, Germany, England. Reyes holds the Grand Prize of the first post-it contemporary art competition, 2013. He has been a resident artist in the Ministry of Culture Austria, 2012 and China, 2018.

Dede Brown was born in Freeport, Grand Bahama and grew up in Nassau. She studied at The Savannah College of Art & Design and has a BFA in Interior Design, with a minor in Photography. For the past ten years she has practiced as a freelance artist and photographer. Brown has permanent sculptures in the Nassau Airport and at Baha Mar Resort, and she has participated in several group exhibitions in Nassau and in two international residencies. Brown currently resides in Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, where she works from a home-based studio. Her work is very often figurative with a strong focus on female and androgynous forms.

Tavares Strachan’s artistic practice activates the intersections of art, science, and politics, offering uniquely synthesized points of view on the cultural dynamics of scientific knowledge.  Aeronautics, astronomy, deep-sea exploration, and extreme climatology are but some of the thematic arenas out of which Strachan creates monumental allegories that tell of cultural displacement, human aspiration, and mortal limitation. Strachan’s ambitious, open-ended practice has included collaborations with numerous organizations and institutions across the disciplines. Strachan was born in 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas, and currently lives and works between New York City and Nassau. He received a BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 2006.