By Francis Quamina Farrier

A number of Guyanese Artists are painting New York City red, white and blue and every other hue. I discovered this when I recently checked out two art exhibitions by Guyanese artists in New York City. In fact, the two exhibitions were held in the Borough of Manhattan, in “The City that never sleeps”.

The first of the current Guyanese Art Exhibitions which I checked out, was a one-man exhibition by veteran artist, Carl Anderson, which was held at the Port Authority Building at 42nd Street and Ninth Avenue in Mid-town Manhattan.

The journey from Georgetown to New York was a long and exciting one for the talented artist. A graduate of the E.R. Burrowes School of Art, Carl has resided in neighbouring Venezuela for 13 years, where he developed a solid base of clients from many parts of the world.

His works have been commissioned by art collectors worldwide, including Guyana. Some years ago, I reported on television, on an impressive piece of Anderson’s artwork depicting the Public Buildings, which was commissioned by then-Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Ralph Ramkarran.

The TV coverage included footage of the artist putting the finishing touches to the artwork at his Durban Street, Georgetown studio, to its arrival at the office of Mr. Ramkarran on the top floor of the West Wing of the Public Buildings,and on-camera comments by the Speaker as regards the painting, which even though brand new, was given touches to make it appear to be vintage as requested. It was one of those news reports which I thoroughly enjoyed producing.

Artworks by Carl Anderson are on display at The National Art Gallery, Castellani House, on Vlissengen Road, in Georgetown. His works are also on display in the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Italy, Malta, the USA and Venezuela among others.

The other current Art Exhibition in Manhattan, New York City, has on display the works of 15 Guyanese artists. It is being held at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI), on 125th Street, East Harlem, in Uptown Manhattan.

CCCADI promotes itself as, “The leading African Diaspora Cultural Arts Institution and Learning Center in New York, providing critical free or low-cost public programming and arts education services to tens of thousands of people annually.” It was founded in 1976.

The Guyanese artists whose works are on exhibition, were either born in British Guiana/Guyana, or born abroad of Guyanese parents. Let’s meet them now; Kwesi Abbensetts who is from the Corentyne, is 41 years old and has been residing in the US for a number of years; Daniel Abrams, 38 years of age, is a New York-born daughter of a Guyanese; Canadian-born Khadija Benn, 31, grew up in Linden and Georgetown; Victor Dawson was born in British Guiana 69 years ago. He migrated to the USA in 1973 and is based in New Jersey.

The very, well-known veteran artist, Stanley Greaves, AA, was born in British Guiana 83 years ago and was based both in Barbados and the USA for many years, he visits Guyana regularly; Brooklyn-based 67-year-old Carl Hazlewood, migrated from his homeland, many years ago. The youngest of the artists whose work is included in the exhibition is Dominique Hunter, who was born in Guyana 30 years ago. Another artist and photographer is 44-year-old Guyanese, Michael Lam, of Georgetown.

It is seven years since the death of the celebrated Guyanese artist and sculptor, Donald Locke, 1930-2010, but his artworks were also on display in the exhibition. The late, great Donald Locke, worked in his native Guyana as well as in the United Kingdom and the United States, where he was well established.

The name of 68-year-old artist, Andrew Lyght, was well-known in the art world of Guyana, before he migrated, first to Canada, then to the USA. Like Andrew Lyght, 44-year-old Suchitra Mattai, first migrated from her native Guyana to Canada in 1976, then later transitioned to the USA. Born in Guyana 43 years ago, Mason Richards is now based in Los Angeles in the USA, where he does his artwork.

Another of the young artists is 31-year-old, Karran Sahadeo, who is classified as being multi-media as she works with painting and photography. Born in the USA of Guyanese parents, 42-year-old Keisha Scarville works out of Brooklyn. And we round off with, 69-year-old multi-disciplinary artist Arlington Weithers who was born in British Guiana in 1948 and now based in New York.

The curator of the Caribbean Cultural Centre African Diaspora Institute is Guyanese-born, Grace Aneiza Ali. The CCCAD gallery is located at 120 East 125 Street in Harlem. It states that it, “envison[s] a world that values and embraces a rich legacy of diverse African cultures.” To that objective, Guyanese artists are making a sterling contribution.