In partnership with the Royal West of England Academy and Bluecoat, NLS is pleased to announce a residency a collaborative residency between Di-Andre C. Davis and Leasho Johnson at Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Through their residency the artists seek to open up a space for the recognition of broader narratives around female bodies and sexuality within contemporary Jamaican society. The project (presented in tandem with Jamaican Pulse exhibition at the RWA) aims to encourage conversation and connections between the UK Jamaica Diaspora and Jamaica, raising public awareness of the social / political milieu by creating a cultural exchange and collaboration between artists from Jamaica and the UK.

We've been having a great six weeks working on the REACH with the Arts project as a partner with the Reach Academy PTA.

Two Kingston-area schools Reach Academy and Jack's Hill Primary participated in the programme, which started with class visits to the National Gallery of Jamaica to see Barrington Watson's art and receive demos by the NGJ Education Department. The program ends with an exhibition of children's work inspired by Barrington Watson, one of Jamaica's most iconic painters.

Join us:
Friday, June 3, 2016
6:30 p.m.
2 Widcombe Road
RSVP: Reach with the Arts Exhibition and Silent Auction

Made possible by sponsorship from Courts Jamaica and framing partners Hi Qo.

NLS welcomes the 2016 Summer Residents: David Gumbs, Kelley-Ann Lindo and Susanne Winterling, three brilliant artists from Martinique, Jamaica and Germany with diverse art practices.

Over the nine-week residency, Gumbs, Lindo and Winterling will bring their unique backgrounds in 3-D mapping, video, painting and marine bioluminescence together to create a responsive mental and social landscape that investigates the vulnerability of water-associated ecologies and their link to our individual and cultural experiences and memories.

Aesthetically the artists approach the project with diverse materials, combining amorphous sculptural cues, a lab aesthetic, and a focus on heightening sensibilities and consciousness within audience participation. The artists draw inspiration from Jamaica's marine ecology-- particularly bioluminescent algae and the conch shell, as well as the context of that ecology within human experience of water-- natural disasters, history, practices and politics.

Donate to the Summer Residency Kickstarter fundraising campaign here.

NLS introduces FORUM, an exhibition of recent work by Jamaican-born, Brooklyn-based artist Simon Benjamin. This body of work is based on Benjamin's visit to the mystery-enshrouded, abandoned hotel The Forum in Port Henderson, just outside of Kingston. The work consists of a series of Photographs and site-specific installation at NLS.

The Forum opened its doors in 1973 and closed in 1978, coinciding with a tumultuous period of Jamaica’s history. For the artist's entire life the Hotel has been defunct and largely left to deteriorate with starts of re-usage in various capacities. For the first time on a visit back to Jamaica, Benjamin trespassed into the property to investigate and learn more about this building, the product of which is this exhibition.

Opening reception: Saturday, March 12, 2016 from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Artist Talk: Sunday, March 13, 2016 from 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., featuring invited panelist Judith Bruce, and moderated by LinYee Yuan.

These events are free and open to the public.

Berlin- and Oslo-based artist, Susanne Winterling is interviewed by guest host Nicole Smythe-Johnson in the upcoming episode of NLS' podcast IN. They will discuss Winterling's most recent exhibitions including 'Nature after nature' at the historical Fridericianum, Kassel, 'Drift' at the Gallerie Parrotta Contemporary Art, in Stuttgart, and 'The Lulennial: A Slight Gesturay', in Mexico City. Working across a variety of media, including film and photography, Winterling is mostly known for installations that critically intervene in their surroundings through directing attention to the sensual and perceptual qualities of spaces, objects and the representation of realities. She is also one of the founders of the art collective Akademie Isotrop, and is a professor of contemporary art.

The podcast episode airs Sunday, January 31 at 3 p.m. on the NLS Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCopVuxfYsATdTGLvH5Wa8VQ

For our upcoming episode of the podcast IN, NLS talks with New York-based curator Blair Murphy about her recent curatorial project in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, an exhibition titled S/N (short for Signal-to-Noise Ratio). We will talk with Murphy about the dynamics of the audial and oral as they were incorporated within the S/N exhibition, as well as her curatorial history and future projects.

The podcast airs live on Sunday, November 15, at 7 p.m. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HPtA-7PPkk

In this informal conversation hosted by NLS, Laughlin will discuss the history of Alice Yard, its ethos of self-determination and openness, and the fascinating problem of inventing a vocabulary to describe a phenomenon that is at once a physical location, a critical space, and a creative practice.

The talk is scheduled for Thursday, November 5, 2015 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more information contact 876-406-9771

Free and open to the public + complimentary refreshments.