Liverpool - More than 70 art works by fifteen UK-based and international contemporary artists. Each piece explores the transatlantic African-Caribbean diaspora in the wake of Elizabethan naval commander Sir John Hawkins, whose 16th-century voyages pioneered Britain's slave trade.

Hawkins & Co is one of the opening exhibitions at Liverpool’s new Contemporary Urban Centre, as the former slave-trading port becomes the 2008 European Capital of Culture. Curated by Kimathi Donkor for Novas Arts and sponsored by the Novas Scarman Group.

 
ABOUT THE ART AND ARTISTS

1. Best known for her 2002 official portrait of the Queen, Nigerian artist Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy’s new painting, Migrants No Entry, renders 21st-century boat people as they risk all in search of forbidden opportunities in Europe.

2. In 2007, Keith Piper (MA) exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum. His 1991 installation A Ship Called Jesus explored the vessel loaned to Hawkins by Elizabeth I, and the 2008 update takes the form of three new paintings – a medium that the Malta-born artist is using for the first time.

3. Liverpool resident Donna Berry (BA) was a 2004 Becks Futures nominee. This exciting sculptor came to prominence using an innovative material - toast. A new frieze explores the artist’s response to the history of struggle and enslavement.

4. Hailing from Martinique in the French Caribbean, Paris-based Jean-François Boclé is creating an installation especially for the exhibition. His globally-exhibited work often uses everyday consumer goods, such as drinking chocolate.

5. George ‘Fowokan’ Kelly’s sculpture Beyond My Grandfather’s Dreams is currently on display at the British Museum. His gold-plated series Guineas reference the British coins associated with the slave trade and named after Guinea in Africa. Jamaican-born Kelly will also show his new ‘Warrior Style’.

6. Dominica-born Tam Joseph (PGCE) will be showing signature paintings from his 24-year career. The seminal Spirit of the Carnival expresses the creativity, alarm and exuberance embodied in the Caribbean settlement of Britain.

7. Marcia Brown (MA) is a Leeds-based artist deeply influenced by her Rastafarian faith. Her brisk paintings perfectly express how the aspirational descendants of Africans enslaved in Jamaica created a new iconography.

8. Paul Clarkson (MA) makes meticulously detailed surreal paintings with a wealth of contemporary, mythical and historical references. The Liverpool-born artist will also exhibit his new Minnie and Slim Ibeji sculptures.

9. Faith Bebbington (BA) creates intriguing sculptures at her Liverpool studio, primarily exploring the human form. With their minimalist detailing, her new works Climbers stimulates an eerie mix of empathy and disquiet.

10. Internationally renowned Raimi Gbadamosi (Phd) creates installations with wit and irony. His black, yellow and white colour schemes challenge conventional ideas about ‘race’, and explore the interplay between abstract ideals.

11. Kofi Achiampong (BA) takes a fresh look at contemporary urban culture, as media stereotypes are held up for scrutiny by this dynamic 24-year-old East-Ender, who is in the final year of an MA at the Slade School of Art.

12. Jane Woolner’s (BA) powerful performance piece Untitled will be recreated live on the preview night. The work links the slave era to 21st-century human trafficking. A video by the St Martin’s graduate documents her 2007 guerrilla-art interventions at the Tate Gallery.

13. Pauline Wiggins’ graphic work The Death of Charles Wooton illustrates the notorious ‘lynch-mob’ incident that has haunted community relations in the artist’s Liverpool hometown for almost a century.

14. The Louder Than Words series by Barbara Walker (BA, PGCE) combines beautifully handpainted studies with digital scans of police ‘stop and search’ forms handed to the artist’s son. They are both critique and testimony.

15. Kimathi Donkor’s (BA, PGCE) works rethink how history is represented by art. UK Disapora synthesizes three traditions of the 'Atlantic triangle': Nkisi Nkondi from Bakongo in Africa; Portraiture from Europe; and Santería from Cuba.

On exhibition 7th March – 5th May 2008 (Preview: 6th March)

CONTACT Rostita Mohamed: +44 (0)151 708 3530 / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

or Kimathi Donkor This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   Visit : URL http://www.novasscarman.org/contemporary-urbancentres/