VIDEO: 70 Years Of Art
Myers, Fletcher & Gordon demonstrates investment in Jamaica’s creative potential with Trajectories: 70 Years of Art at MF&G
Myers, Fletcher & Gordon, Attorneys-at-Law have long been known for their legal expertise, professionalism, civic engagement and progressive approach.
Since the firm’s founding in 1944, three partners have been appointed as ambassadors, two as ministers of government, and three have been awarded the Order of Jamaica for outstanding public service. This year MF&G celebrates 70 years, and the firm is taking the opportunity to introduce the public to a less well-known dimension of its history and interests; its longstanding support of the creative industries.
On the weekend of July 25, 2014, MF&G will open its doors to the public for Trajectories: 70 Years of Art at Myers, Fletcher and Gordon. Trajectories is an exhibition that includes a selection of over two dozen works from MF&G’s substantial art collection. Artists such as Edna Manley, Kapo, Carl Abrahams, Karl and Seya Parboosingh, Eugene Hyde, Colin Garland, Fitz and Norma Harrack, Gene Pearson and Barrington Watson are a few of the Jamaican masters whose work will be on display.
Embodying the progressive spirit that has allowed MF&G to maintain its position as one of the leading law firms in the region, six emerging contemporary Jamaican artists have also been invited to participate. Deborah Anzinger, Marvin Bartley, Di-Andre C. Davis, Leasho Johnson, Oneika Russell and Phillip Thomas will exhibit new and existing work that reflects on pieces by six of the masters in the MF&G collection.
Abstract painter Deborah Anzinger will respond to Milton George’s The Artist and Portrait of Pat II. Marvin Bartley and Phillip Thomas will present their own work as contemporary versions of/responses to Barrington Watson’s classical portraits of feminine beauty in Two Women and Women at the Well. Digital artist Di-Andre C Davis will reflect on Gloria Escoffery’s typically surrealist work Up At 4:00 am (1990). Oneika Russell will tease out common themes of femininity and domestic intimacy in an installation incorporating the work of Seya Parboosingh. Filmmakers Storm Saulter, Nile Saulter and Gabrielle Blackwood will also exhibit short films.
MF&G associates Simone Bowie Jones and Danielle Stiebel, who have both joined the firm within the last 10 years, were the driving force behind the development of the project. According to Bowie Jones: “We really wanted to invite people to get to know us, and allow them to see the many deep and varied dimensions of the firm and our vision for the future.” A number of the firm’s attorneys, including Stiebel and Bowie Jones, work in Sports and Entertainment, and Intellectual Property Law. As a result, they keenly understand the potential within Jamaica’s creative industries, and the need to protect and develop that potential.
In Trajectories, MF&G has signalled this clearly, enlisting the support of independent curator and former Senior Curator of the National Gallery of Jamaica, Nicole Smythe-Johnson to support it in the development of the project. Smythe-Johnson notes, “I am very proud to be working on this project. I see it as a beginning in the long-discussed and much-needed partnership between the creative industries, particularly the under-served visual arts, and the private sector. MF&G is really leading the charge here, making real moves to engage and support the artistic community with a project like Trajectories. I look forward to seeing more of this kind of collaboration in the future.”
The exhibition will open this evening, on the 5th floor of the MF&G building at 21 East Street on July 25th by invitation-only. The reception is geared at young professionals, particularly those working in the creative industries. The idea is to invite them to view these outstanding works of art and the important traditions and new directions in Jamaica’s creative output that they represent, and offer an opportunity for networking.
On Saturday, July 26, Trajectories will open to the public from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. On Sunday July 27, there will be an invitation-only special viewing for MF&G’s long-standing clients and partners. The exhibition will close on Sunday afternoon with a public viewing from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm. For more information and viewing appointments, please e-mail art@mfg.com.jm.
