August 26 - November 13, 2021
The Other Side of the Pentaprism
Melissa Alcena
Tamika Galanis
Jodi Minnis
Lynn Parotti
Leanne Russell
Tiffany Smith
The Other Side of the Pentaprism (re-)mirrors a vision of the Caribbean as it is, but seldom is seen. The six artists in this show are the pentaprism, filtering their gaze through their creative vision. Revealing a different universe while questioning the “real” one in which we inhabit, the exhibition upsets the narratives and histories many of us have been taught, showing that the norms and status quo are truly mad. Is it not our accepted world that is illogical? A world where the homes of the enslavers are venerated while those of the enslaved are forgotten, where women are valued only for their ability to serve or bear children and where histories are unwritten. These artists present us rather with a world where people exist as more than props within a fabricated backdrop.
Melissa Alcena
Alcena is Bahamian portrait and documentary photographer based in Nassau, Bahamas. Her work often focuses on shifting the narrative around the Caribbean, and specifically The Bahamas, which is regularly portrayed as a country of shallow luxury, corruption or climate destruction.
Jodi Minnis
Minnis is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates the intersection of gender, race and culture. Through photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, video and performance, she scrutinizes the traditional representations and tropes around Black, specifically Bahamian women.
Lynn Parotti
Parotti is a Bahamian painter who is preoccupied with the environment in all its multifaceted connotations. She has a consuming passion for the natural landscape of the Bahamas where she was born but is equally concerned with the social geography of place; the human experience and relationship to these locations, the historical traces, the economic and environmental impact and consequences.
Tiffany Smith
Smith is an interdisciplinary artist from the Caribbean diaspora working in photography, video, installation, and design. Using plant matter, design elements, patterning and costuming as cultural signifiers, Smith creates photographic portraits, site responsive installations, user-engaged experiences, and assemblages focused on identity, representation, cultural ambiguity, and displacement.