NATIONAL GALLERY OF JAMAICA

The National Gallery has been around since 1974 and is Jamaica’s oldest and largest premiere art exhibit gallery. The gallery houses an impressive collection of early and contemporary art from mainly Jamaican artists and to a lesser extent art from the region and diaspora. The halls of the gallery is carefully curated with collections from prominent and emerging artists. These collections reflect Jamaica’s creativity at its finest and most potent. The extensive collection includes Edna Manley’s prolific ‘Negro Aroused’ mahogany sculpture depicting Jamaica’s labour unrest in the 1930s, the surrealist masterpiece ‘In the Beautiful Caribbean’ (1974) from Colin Garland, and celebrated realist painter Barrington Watson’s iconic portrayal of a group of women washing by the river.

Other exhibits showcase the diversity of the Jamaican art landscape through prints, ceramics, fibre arts, installations, and digital photography. The Gallery is also host to several open-submission art exhibitions. This include the recent inaugural Summer Exhibition, the National Biennial and Jamaica Biennial exhibitions. The popular Last Sundays programme offers free tours, entertainment, and admission on the last Sunday of the month. It opens the Gallery to everyone wanting to enjoy the changing exhibitions as well as visit old favourites.