We are proud to announce our Award winner for ‘Best of Show’, Greg Bailey.
Due West’s People’s Choice Award
January 19, 2019 marked the opening of the second successful staging of National Gallery West’s submission-based exhibition Due West. Created in 2018, Due West is a key part of a continuing initiative aimed at discovering and showcasing the work of artists who live in, or are from Western Jamaica. In September 2019, a call for entries was sent out into the public inviting all artists, amateur and professional, residing in or originally from Western Jamaica, to submit their works for consideration. After the adjudication, 14 artists were selected: Indie Allen, Greg Bailey, Krystal Ball, Esther Chin, Andrew Duhaney, Andrea Jadusingh, Kate Moyston, David Pinto, Naomi Redway, Nathan Robb, Deon Simone, P.J. Stewart, Ivorhod Walters and Trisannia Watson. These artists were represented by a mixture of paintings, photography, audio visual art, fiber art, mixed media and sculpture.
A key component of this exhibition is its People’s Choice Award; which offers the viewing public an opportunity to vote for their favourite artwork in the exhibition. The artist whose work receives the most votes at the end of the exhibition receives an award of JA$50,000.00.
Voting was opened to the public on January 19, 2020 and was to continue until the exhibition’s end on April 10, 2020. Due to the necessary closure of our gallery as ordered by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport in keeping with the recommendations of The Ministry of Health and Wellness to minimize the potential spread of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), voting closed on March 17, 2020. As a result, the votes for the People’s Choice Award were tallied up to that date.
Award Winner
The work which received the most votes from our local and international visitors was painted by artist Greg Bailey. Greg Bailey hails from Warsop, Trelawny. He earned his BFA from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in 2010 and his MFA from the Washington University in St. Louis, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts in 2019. He works in a variety of media which includes painting, drawing, digital design and sculpture and has exhibited locally at the National Gallery of Jamaica, National Gallery West and the Olympia Art Gallery. He has also exhibited in the UK, the USA and Germany. He is the recipient of the Danforth Scholarship, a CHASE Fund Scholarship and the Dawn Scott Memorial Award. Bailey’s works are held in private collections in Jamaica, England, Germany and the USA.
His work is an ongoing investigation of the Black mass within postcolonial spaces such as the Caribbean. It explores the colonial residue lingering within the environs of the contemporary Caribbean, which perpetrates a confusing notion of self and space. This condition is a nucleus for issues of race, gender, identity and various socio-political complexities. Bailey uses these cultural phenomena as visual and cerebral elements of his practice.
His work will be featured on all of National Gallery West’s social media as well as in the local press. To see other works by Greg Bailey, please follow his Instagram account: @gregbaileyart.
National Gallery West takes this opportunity to thank all the participating artists as well as supporters of the arts who are integral parts of the Western Jamaican cultural community. Our mission to be a dynamic platform for the growth of our visual arts community would be impossible without your continued support. The team at National Gallery West looks forward to showcasing the work of artists from Western Jamaica in the next edition of Due West and the next open call for submissions which will be published later this year.
vorhod Walters, David Pinto and Trisannia Watson.
National Gallery West 