‘One Big Painting’ opens at Queen’s Park Gallery

By Simone Tull

With her life firmly devoted to the arts, the continued contribution of prolific painter Alison Chapman-Andrews is being showcased with an exhibition at the Queen’s Park Gallery.

The National Cultural Foundation (NCF) has partnered with the accomplished visual artist to stage One Big Painting: Alison Chapman-Andrews – 80 years of Seeing in celebration of her 80th birthday later this year.

Members of the art community gathered on Saturday evening for the opening. Among those in attendance was Carol Roberts-Reifer, Chief Executive Officer of the NCF. Embracing the essence of creativity which Chapman-Andrews embodies, her welcome remarks were delivered with a poignant narrative. In her own inimitable style, Roberts-Reifer, in an impactful excerpt, said, “Sixty years and counting I marveled, sixty years of imagination, inspiration and expression, a treasure of her generation and ours, and those to come. Sixty years of beauty, of perseverance, of absolutely prolific work, of powerful statements about this land, her land… our land.”

Roberts-Reifer extended gratitude to Chapman-Andrews, stating, “Thank you Alison for your life’s work to date. Thank you for generously and selflessly affording us a glimpse of your soul. Thank you for nudging us towards an appreciation of this land and our land, and most importantly, thank you for the beauty, the creativity, and the magic.” As a token of appreciation, she presented the artiste with a bouquet of flowers.

Curator and collaborator Katherine Kennedy noted, “One Big Painting commemorates many things. Just as we see variations of the physical and the social landscape through Alison Chapman-Andrew’s artwork, we are also seeing recent landmarks such as the artiste’s 80th birthday, sixty years of artistic production, fifty- six years of Barbados’ Independence and recently our first anniversary as a Republic, milestones shared by Alison and the island she cherishes and calls home.”

Kennedy said, “The exhibition, first conceptualized as a virtual show with an accompanying catalogue and later expanded to include the physical manifestation that you see today, has been lovingly crafted through Alison’s own eyes, taking ownership in the framing and contextualization of her legacy. It was humbling to be asked to work with her to co-curate this final product, to facilitate, coordinate and support the artist’s vision and celebration of a lifetime dedicated to culture and art.”

Featured speaker Dr. Alison Thompson underscored the importance of the event paying homage to Chapman-Andrews, who is multifaceted but widely known for her landscapes. She said, “As an artiste, as a writer, as a collector as an agitator, Alison’s contribution to the story of art in Barbados and the wider Caribbean is tremendous and we are so very fortunate to once again be standing here in this gallery surrounded by her paintings and to experience all that they give to us the viewers.”

She admitted, “For her, seeing is more than just looking. Seeing is revelation. It is the ability to see anew and discover and understand in more nuanced ways, and that is what I have always found in Alison’s paintings. They continue to inspire us to look again at the familiar world that surrounds us and to reacquaint ourselves with the rich, mysterious, cosmic, ever evolving, ever shifting pleasures that are to be found there, and for that gift Alison, we thank you.”

The virtual component is available on the National Cultural Foundation website. Art lovers are invited to visit the gallery for the exhibition, which provides a new dimension for familiar images. It will be open Monday to Saturday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. until May 13, 2023. (STT)