Feb. 19, 2003 – A "Caribbean Collaboration" by four individual artists working in different mediums will go on exhibition Sunday afternoon with a reception at Mango Tango Art Gallery.
The public is invited to view the works of Kathy Carlson, Courtney Devonish, Carrolle Devonish and Caroll Sirhakis between 2 and 6 p.m. All four artists will be on hand to discuss their work.
Carlson, a St. Thomas oil painter, and Courtney Devonish, a wood sculptor based on Anguilla, exhibited together for the first time last year at the Raphune Hill gallery. They are joined now by Devonish's wife, Carrolle, a bead jewelry maker, and Sirhakis, a St. Thomas metal design artist.
"The work of each of these artists is quite spiritual," Mango Tango owner Jane Coombes says, as all have "directed energy into a medium that best expresses inward feelings or ambitions."
Carlson captures current island life and that of years gone by in her paintings. Originally from the mainland East Coast, she was a professional educator for more than 30 years, the last three at Antilles School. She now works full time as an artist.
Courtney Devonish sculpts wood into sensuous female forms and thought-provoking abstract shapes. Originally from Barbados, he studied sculpture and ceramics in England and Italy and has exhibited internationally. He has a studio and gallery on Anguilla.
Carrolle Devonish came to the islands from Philadelphia. She helps operate her husband's gallery, runs her own boutique and finds time to bead jewelry. The beads she works with are from throughout the world, many collected on her extensive travels.
Sirhakis, a 35-year St. Thomas resident, was formerly a fabric designer in New York. She studied at the Moore Institute of Art in Philadelphia and Pratt Institute in New York. A co-founder of Down Island Traders, she designed the St. Thomas gallery and gift shop's signature logo, T-shirts and packaging.
She has been working with artisans in Haiti for decades. The pieces she created for the Mango Tango show represent six months of design work and her directing of metal artisans in Haiti. The collaboration has yielded bowls, wall hangings and mirror frames.
Coombes says of the four collaborators: "Carlson shines capturing a luminosity in each oil painting. Courtney Devonish shows a special kind of sensibility for shapes and forms. Carrolle Devonish creates in wearable art a joining of diverse cultures. Sirhakis combines her classical art training to manipulate metal, a material to which she responds, with decorative designs."
The show will hang for a month at the gallery, located in Al Cohen's Plaza. For more information, call 777-3060.
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