GREAT BAY, St. Martin — The art of Deborah Jack, probably St. Martin’s most reviewed visual artist, has been on exhibit in Bamako, capital of Mali, since last November.
“I exhibited with MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora at Bamako Encounters – African Biennale of Photography,” said Jack.
Jack’s photograph in the exhibit is called “Untitled,” from the series, The Season of Bloom. The group show ends January 31, 2020, as the 12th edition of “Bamako Encounters.”
“My work seeks to articulate an historical and cultural injury in a way that tries to avoid and subvert images of suffering and victim-hood that have been used as visual hot buttons in the past,” said Jack, who is a published poet under the name Drisana.
The Bamako festival “is the principal event dedicated to contemporary photography and new imagery in Africa,” said Lassana Igo Diarra, General Delegate of Bamako Encounters.
Jack is noted in US reviews for her wall-size, contemporary St. Martin sea and salt-inspired video and sound installations, said Lasana Sekou, her book publisher at HNP.
In the Huffington Post, what NYU professor Jacqueline Bishop called Jack’s “hauntingly familiar” work, also includes paintings and photography.
Jack’s art is currently on exhibit across the Atlantic from Africa as well.
According to Miami Herald, the St. Martin artist is in the show called “The Other Side of Now,” at the Perez Art Museum Miami through June 7, 2020. The 14 artists on exhibit in Florida are pondering “what might a Caribbean future look like?”
Jack’s schedule is revving up in 2020 in more ways than one. There is already a solo exhibit lined up for New York City; and there is her work as an associate professor of art at New Jersey City University. Deborah Jack is also featured in the forthcoming book A to Z of Caribbean Art.
Photo caption: An elegant Deborah Jack, with her artwork on exhibit at a recent show in the USA. (© DJ photo.)
