{"id":51550,"date":"2014-03-06T13:14:42","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T18:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=51550"},"modified":"2014-03-10T08:59:29","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T12:59:29","slug":"john-cox-represents-popopstudios-at-new-york-art-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2014\/03\/john-cox-represents-popopstudios-at-new-york-art-fair","title":{"rendered":"John Cox Represents Popopstudios At New York Art Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"_johncox-popopstudios-volta-2014\"<\/p>\n

Bahamian artist John Cox, who was recently named creative artistic director for Baha Mar, will be an exhibitor at one of New York\u2019s most anticipated annual art fairs.<\/p>\n

Starting March 6, Mr Cox will be displaying at the Volta NY fair, an invitational show of emerging solo artists\u2019 work.<\/p>\n

\"_johncox-popopstudios-volta-2014-24\"It is the American incarnation of Volta Basel in Switzerland conceived in 2008 by European-born co-founder Amanda Coulson. It is designed as a place of discovery and exploration of contemporary art as presented by participating galleries.<\/p>\n

Mr Cox\u2019s 2013 work, \u201cFiller,\u201d is presented by Popopstudios of Nassau, a gallery space for local Bahamian artists created by Mr Cox and the first-ever gallery from the Caribbean to participate in an international art fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese fairs are a new platform for contemporary Bahamian art to be experienced, where more complex narratives of Bahamian culture can be presented globally,\u201d Mr Cox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstitutions like Baha Mar are elevating the ceiling under which artists work by broadening the opportunities for visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Baha Mar, Mr Cox will be in charge of driving the creative experience at the $3.5 billion luxury resort which officially opens in December 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting,\u201d the artist said. \u201cBaha Mar CEO Sarkis Izmirlian has made the experience of Bahamian art and Bahamian culture the defining element of the resort. The Bahamian art community is thriving. The artists bring freshness, a contemporary creativity and a geographical clarity apart from the rest of the Caribbean that is distinctive, and we\u2019ll use all of that visual language to give Baha Mar an authentic voice to reach a variety of audiences. It\u2019s an energizing mix of yin and yang: yin is tourism and hospitality, while yang is art, special, highly personal, sophisticated experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Cox\u2019s first mission is to curate the 1,000-acre resort, coordinating more than 2,500 engaging art moments across the expansive island campus in public spaces and guest rooms at all of the resort\u2019s hotels. These moments will tell the storied history of the Bahamas and of Baha Mar. At the heart of these stories will be the resort\u2019s art gallery and museum, which will showcase the largest collection of Bahamian art in the country and feature both permanent installations and rotating exhibits curated by Mr Cox. In addition, Bahamian artists in residence will create artworks at the resort\u2019s on-site artist studios.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will independently brand and name these studio spaces, with an eye for them to become a compelling direct art offering, a beacon that represents and showcases Bahamian artists in much the same way that Art Basel and other art fairs shine a spotlight now,\u201d Mr Cox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll host talks, seminars and workshops to nurture our local creative community; some day even sponsor the first Bahamian regional art fair, an event about the region that takes place in the region. And of course we will continually explore opportunities to sponsor Bahamian artists at international fairs such as Art Basel, Volta Basel, Volta NY and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"_johncox-popopstudios-volta-2014-22\"<\/p>\n

Known for his contemporary aesthetic in mixed media and paintings, Mr Cox brings a strong, modern voice to Bahamian art. In addition to working closely with Baha Mar\u2019s local art alliances \u2013 the D\u2019Aguilar Art Foundation, the Dawn Davies Collection and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB), of which the Volta NY co-founder is director \u2013 Mr Cox\u2019s experience as an internationally exhibited artist and chief curator of the NAGB will be an integral part of building collaborative efforts with the creative community.<\/p>\n

\"_johncox-popopstudios-volta-2014-44\"His Volta NY 2014 work consists of what Mr Cox refers to as \u201cdark flowers\u201d. Constructed of bicycle inner-tubes, string and air, materials that represent both his passionate pursuit of biking and the extremes of slow deflating and forceful bursting, Me Cox suggests that life is a constant search for balance.<\/p>\n

Mr Cox will also participate in \u2018Metanoia \u2013 Practices of Exhaustion\u2019 in the Volta Talks Lounge this Friday, where he will discuss his own practice as well as the state of art in the Bahamas and the Baha Mar art programme.<\/p>\n

The informal talk will be led by ARC Magazine Editor-in-Chief Holly Bynoe (St Vincent and the Grenadines) and Junior Editor\/Curator Blake Daniels (USA). Centered around Caribbean and diasporan-based artists whose practices intersect various disciplines, the group will also highlight critical concerns in the development of visual language through the examination of private and public realities of contemporary Caribbean society.<\/p>\n

The Tribune<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bahamian artist John Cox, who was recently named creative artistic director for Baha Mar, is an exhibitor, representing Popopstudios ,at one of New York\u2019s most anticipated annual art fairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":51551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[320,104],"class_list":["post-51550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-art","tag-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}