Nassau, Bahamas-based TERN Gallery will “celebrate the ways abstract expression inspires practice” by Leonardo Benzant (Dominican-American), Ronald Cyrille (Guadeloupe), and Steven Schmidt (Bahamas) in the exhibition “Summer Summer.” The exhibition will run from July 25 to August 24, 2024. [See more information on the artists below.]
Description: Summer Summer This group exhibition focuses on abstract expression from three distinct Caribbean regions. The exhibiting artists are Leonardo Benzant (Dominican-American), Ronald Cyrille (Guadeloupe) and Steven Schmidt (Bahamas). Summer Summer It highlights the artist’s free-flowing and inclusive representational approach in each medium. [. . .] From collages to paintings to mixed media works using handmade paper, the exhibition focuses on how each artist reflects their experiences of identity, spirituality and landscape in their two-dimensional representations of the world.
Bahamian artist Steven Schmitt is a multidisciplinary artist who uses drawing, painting and collage to explore themes of nostalgia, masculinity and otherness. Through abstract figuration, Schmitt creates self-portraits and family portraits, sampling textures, photography and images from his past work to depict a holistic aesthetic of the complexities of masculinity on handmade paper.
Urban shaman Leonardo Benzant’s practice “bridges spiritual and material realities” of African descent. Working with soft pastels and acrylic on paper, Benzant conjures up repetitive moving portraits and images of the human body. His colorful mark-making energizes the painting, pulsating electrically between foreground and background. Benzant invites the viewer to witness a culmination of responses and promptings in these paintings born from his belief that African spirituality can be a tool of resistance.
Southern Caribbean native Ronald Cyril is a visual artist and muralist who combines anthropomorphic figures, Caribbean landscapes and bestiary animals in his paintings and collages. Cyril’s grotesque yet beautiful paintings and paper collages draw the viewer into the surreal world of his work. The simplicity of island life is complicated as Cyril animates each element into a whimsical, monstrous existence. Here, the sun has teeth and a smile and the island itself is a living thing.
Summer Summer We bring together three practices in the middle of the summer, highlighting their different roots in abstraction, figuration and surrealism. Distortion aims to allow us to see the everyday in an extraordinary way, to become attuned to complexity. Abstraction and surrealism allow us to see the world from a different perspective and to settle with difference.
Ronald Cyril (born 1984 in Guadeloupe) is a visual artist and muralist. His technique combines bas-reliefs, Caribbean landscapes and animals from bestiaries. His figures are sometimes double-headed, sometimes with disproportionate limbs, or made up of branches, leaves and the features of animals native to the Caribbean coast. The Creole dog is one of the main characters in his pictorial stories. He represents the landscape that surrounds him. He questions the society. He portrays what undermines it and what makes it move. Colour plays an important role, bringing dynamism and energy to his work. His work is rich and prolific. A kind of surrealist expression of movement, real yet close to unreal, gives a unique strength to his work.
Leonardo Benzant (b. 1972, New York) is an artist who bridges the spiritual and material realities of African descent. Among his multidisciplinary practice, he is best known for his expressive paintings and exquisite bead sculptures. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he is Dominican-American and of Haitian descent. His practice is influenced by the study and ritual of his Congolese and Yoruba origins. He utilizes a variety of media and found objects to create work that connects African and Caribbean religion, art, history, culture, ritual, and modern and contemporary art.
Stephen Schmidt (born 1987 in Nassau, Bahamas) is a Bahamian interdisciplinary artist whose work explores themes of masculinity and otherness through painting, collage, and assemblage. Incorporating hip hop production and sampling as his visual practice, Schmitt’s current research explores how laughter, humor, and play can imagine more expansive expressions of Bahamian masculinity and individualism. Schmitt has exhibited in several galleries and fairs, including Gallery House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, TERN Gallery in Nassau, Bahamas, National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, and SCOPE Art Fair in Miami, Florida, USA. Schmitt received his BFA in Film, Video, and Integrated Media from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2016 and his MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts, Media, and Design from Ontario University of Art and Design in 2022. He currently lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
TERN Gallery TERN is a contemporary art gallery based in Nassau, Bahamas, which opened in December 2020. Recognizing the need for a world-class contemporary art space to bring Bahamian artists to local and global recognition, Amanda Coulson and Lauren Perez, along with Exhibitions and Programs Director Jodie Minnis, debuted TERN to create a space of opportunity previously absent from the Eurocentric art world. TERN provides a platform for Bahamian artists to achieve international success and sets a pathway for young and emerging artists to access art careers beyond the bounds of what was previously possible.
For more information about this exhibition, please contact info@terngallery.com
