A paradise for creative artists...

Jamaican art is a rich melange of sources and styles, forming an endlessly fascinating cultural kaleidoscope. It is vibrant and full of spirit. It reflects the lively mix of races, social levels and cultural sources.

Like the majority of caribbean and Latin American works, Jamaican art takes many forms: surrealism, realism, abstract, Afro-Caribbean cubism, modernism, academic and installation art.

Sculpture and crafts
Wood sculpture is an especially strong tradition in Jamaica, springing from African tribal culture and tempered by the European-influenced symbolic wood sculpture of the late Edna Manley, matriarch of Jamaican art.
Numerous artist are prominent in the Jamaican art scene, as well as Jamaican artist born elsewhere. The trained and self-taught or "intuitive" artists come together to form this lively blend.

Some of Jamaica's better known artists that will have there work on display from time to time are: Sinclair Edwards, Aston Martin, Kenneth Martin, Trash, Dennis Hall and Everald brown. But there are many more...

Beware that most of the crafts are tourist oriented and that you have to take a very good look at the object before you buy it.

Painting
They are painters too, the Jamaicans. In many places you can view painted work from all over the island.


Jamaican art has its origins in the 18th and 19th centuries, when itinerant artists roamed the plantations, recording life in a Eurocentric romanticized light that totally ignored the African heritage. Satirist William Hogarth was one of few artists to portray the hypocrisy and savagery of plantation life.

In the 1920s, artists of the so-called Jamaica School began to develop their own expressions shaped by realities of Jamaican life.
The Jamaican School evolved two main groups: painters who were schooled abroad and island-themed primitives, or 'intuitives' - self-taught artists such as Bishop Mallica 'Kapo' Reynolds (1911-89) and John Dunkley (1891-1947).

Some (but there are many more!) interesting painters are Wilfred Black (landscapes), Elizabeth White, Susan Clare, Albert Artwell and Nelton Fisher.

Theater and dance
Jamaica has a rich heritage of dance and theater.
The country shuns classical Shakespearean theater, preferring farces and homilies that draw on local traditions. They're often bawdy and tend to portray the trials of the poor. Theater productions are often performed in patois (Jamaica's local dialect).

Kingston's scene is vibrant enough to sustain half a dozen or more concurrent productions, including the internationally acclaimed Little Theater Movement, the Jamaica Folk Singers, the National Chorale, the University Players, and above all the National Dance Theater Company (NDC), which is based in Kingston's Little Theater.

The NDC's dancers, musicians, and singers explore African themes and forms, often in vividly imaginative costumes, through performances based on Jamaican history and daily life.

Pantomime, one of Jamaica's popular events, is a musical comedy - a blend of lively song, dance, and words that lampoon Jamaican foibles, historic events, and well-known figures in Jamaican life. During performances, the audience gets drawn in, volubly so.
The National Pantomime - a monument of folk theater and irreverent family entertainment - is staged by the Little Theater Movement and is traditionally held in Kingston's Ward Theater.


The pantomime has its roots in the British tradition, in which performances are based on childhood fairy tales and stories such as 'Cinderella' and 'Jack and the Beanstalk.' But over the years, folkloric characters such as Anancy and Tacooma (both originated in West Africa) began to appear on stage, as did adapted versions of Jamaican folk tales.

And Music!
From hotel beach parties to the raw 'sound-system' discos of the working-class suburbs, Jamaica reverberates to the soul-riveting sounds of calypso, soca, and above all, reggae. Music is everywhere. And loud!

Bob Marley & The Wailers - No Woman No Cry

[more Bob Marley on YouTube.com]

Reggae may have put Jamaica on the musical map, but the nation's musical heritage runs much deeper. Inspired by the country's rich African folk heritage, music spans mento (a folk calypso), ska, rocksteady, 'roots' music, and contemporary dancehall and raga. Kingston is the 'Nashville of the Third World,' with recording studios pumping out dozens of new titles each month See the Reggae 'n' Riddims special section for an in-depth description.

Jamaica also has a strong heritage in military bands, notably the Jamaica Military Band, which dates back to England's first West India Regiment in 1795 and still uses its unique Zouave (light infantry of North African origin) uniform.