Doba worked as a graphic artist with the British overseas development of the UN and taught at Yaba College of technology in Lagos Nigeria prior to his coming to New York. His success at several exhibition and the academics propelled his momentum. He is proud of his first Solo exhibition tagged 'Buffalo Soldier' in 1999 at the art district of North East Miami in Florida and several other shows curated by Asmar b art gallery which launched his fame among the scholars thereby initiating him as a relevant force at the annual Black History Month art shows at the Florida International University. He is well known at various art galleries after working briefly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the City and has featured alongside the art biggies most especially at the great Dorsey Gallery which produced the likes of Romare Bearden, Otto Neal, and Dr Ojo who connected him with Emmit Wigglesworth.

 

 

 

 

Turgo Bastien, original founder of Art Creation Foundation for Children, is an artist of Haitian descent. His work transcends his culture, spiritual essence and life experiences to present a global vision of truth and reality. Turgo was born in Haiti, grew up in Haiti and his brain, heart and spirit are mapped and hard-wired to the culture of Haiti. Turgo sees his own marginality and unbearable cultural shock of an individual moving from one part of the world to another. The work must find another identity or recover what has been lost before it sinks into nothingness. But this is not simple. His paintings derive from the rhythmical space, filling patterns of the mask and the multidimensional state of mind of those from his background. His pictures are not mere patterns but images and their forms whether painted or sculpted, invest the surface with mysterious life. The outcome of his sight is heightened awareness that what we have in common is indeed far greater than what divides us.

 

 

 

 

Anthony Burks is one of the most unique conceptual artists in America. His paintings mix colored pencils, watercolor, pen, and ink, and are characterized by his unusual choice of colors. Whether depicting birds, animals, or people, Anthony is able to convey the intertwining of their beauty and their strength. He chooses his subjects because of what they mean to him, and he tells their stories through his combination of realistic forms, bright colors, and abstract images.

A graduate of the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Anthony has exhibited at galleries, museums, and events for over twenty years, including: the Endangered Species of Florida Exhibition at the Paul Fisher Gallery; Collaboration: African Diaspora at the Armory Art Center. His painting “Freedom 2001” can be found in the Cornell Museum Permanent Collection. He is presently working on a coffee table book of his paintings and drawings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Born in the Dominican Republic in 1962. Maximo Caminero's work is rooted in ancient Taino (first inhabitants of the Antilles) forms resonate in the present with a modern optic. The versatility of his paintings adorning the Caribbean horizon, touching without hiding, the African legacy. His work has not supported or religious ritual other renowned artists such as Wilfredo Lam been studied. The only captures the physical essence of these desires away. His work as he himself defines it: \"It \'s a reflection of thought\" where we wander in a world more real, beyond what man-made, everything is philosophy, he says and adds, nothing is found, man creates his dreams and unreal and is based on fictional worlds. I will not escape it and create my own world, my language. Although my story is recreated in the day by day, in the human struggle in his defects and effects plasmo the subconscious and this is manifested, sovereign and incognito. Backed by a number of prestigious critics, his works have been auctioned at prestigious houses in America and some acquired by American museums.

 

 

 

 

Born 1946, Jamaica. Stylistically, Cecil Cooper's paintings follow the vein of neo-expressionism, using expressive colours and distorting the human figure. His paintings often feature mythic or archetypal elements. cooper paints with his canvases on the floor, carefully balancing deliberate mark-making with elements of change. He attended the School of Visual Arts where he obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1976. Cecil began his professional career as a fine artist exhibiting in New York galleries, but in 1980 he returned to Jamaica intent on making a national contribution by teaching painting at the Jamaica School of Art. It is significant that since that time he has been the Head of the PaintingDepartment at the EMCVPA guiding and influencing numerous students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“My aspiration is to expose the mystery, humility, intrigue, and exoticism of the Haitian Culture through my art. The ultimate joy is to share my works with an international audience”. Born in Haiti, moved to New York with his family at the age of 15. He pursued a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance and International Business at Florida International University. Carl participated in the conception and implementation of the Programme de Déconcentration de Port-au-Prince introduced by the “Ministère de l’ Intérieur & des Collectivités Territoriales”. During that period, he learned more about Haiti and its culture while he covered the whole territory. Despite his successes in the financial markets and as an international consultant, Carl has chosen to walk away from all the power and structure to satisfy his thirst for creativity by unleashing his talent in the arts: painting, photography and music. As a self-taught artist, he brilliantly and skillfully captures the beauty that is embedded in Haitian culture.

 

 

 

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1954, Philippe Dodard is a leading contemporary artist of the Caribbean and the African Diaspora. His artistic evolution was a series of steps, leading to major solo and international exhibitions including, Arte Americas (2008), the Venice Biennale (1999), Biennale of Latin American Drawings, Santo Domingo (1997), and the Biennale of Caribbean and Central America Art, Dominican Republic (1996). Dodard attained international prominence by rejecting the ‘primitive’, ‘naïve’ classification that dogged Haitian art. Dodard superbly blended Haitian, Caribbean and African iconographical elements to create deep complex forms. His recent choice of themes, Initiation, Consternation and Baron Samedi reflects his transformation into “a human Poto-Mitan,” the channeling pole at the center of the Vodun temple through which the spiritual forces descend to the oumphor (temple).

 

 

 

Ivana Blanco Gross is a conceptual artist born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1965. Studied at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, NL (KABK), her work explores her perceptions of different geographical locations and translates into color her connections to the land. The notion of location is emphasized trough the interaction and intersection of line, color and geography. Blanco Gross is the initiator of the Un-Send project. She splits her time between her studios in NY, Miami and s'Hertogenbosch (NL).

 

 

 

 

One of Jamaica's most talented artists, Nakazzi Hutchinson graduated from the Sculpture department at the Jamaica School of Art at the top of her year, returning to live in Jamaica after spending many of her early years in Barbados, London, and New York. She was awarded the Mutual Life Artist of the year award, carrying away both prizes, the public award as well as the juried prize. She has exhibited extensively in museums and galleries across the Caribbean and 

internationally in places such as Miami, New York and Berlin, where she captured the imagination and awe of a wide and varied audience. Her large scale sculpture based installation work utilizes a variety of organic materials, suspended floating life-sized figures. The Jamaican National Gallery has represented her installations and carries her work in their permanent collection. Her African Name "Nakazzi" means woman of Substance" and through her work she continues to strive to embody this ideal.

 

 

 

Rudolf Kohn was born in Bogota, Colombia in 1971. He began his first drawings at age 3 and his first apprenticeship at age 13 with David Manzur. Then went on to completing his degree in Art at Universidad de los Andes (1992), simultaneously, apprenticing with Augusto Ardila. Raised during political turmoil, Rudolf’s artwork is undeniably influenced by politics of the country. Rudolf arrived in Miami, Florida in 1992 starting his work as an artist resident at the Bakehouse Art Complex (BAC). From 1992-2015 Rudolf has been widely recognized and exhibited in Florida, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, San Francisco (McLoughlin Gallery), Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Colombia (La Pared Gallery). Rudolf featured a solo exhibition with the ‘City of Love’ at Miami Art Space in 2009. The Red Bull, Art of Can Exhibition 2010. His sculpture was exhibited at the Frost Art Museum, Sculpture Garden (2014). Art Basel 2014 Rudolf was in a group exhibit showing paintings and sculptures at Praxis Architecture Space and is currently preparing for a group exhibition at MOCA for Art Basel 2015.

 

 

 

Rafael Lopez-Ramos (Cabaiguan, Cuba, 1962) is a visual artist graduated from Academia San Alejandro, Havana, 1985. His latest solo shows have been Chromatic Aporias, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, 2015; and Wonderland, The Art Link, Miami, 2013 and 17 Frost Art Space, Brooklyn, NY, 2012. Following his cogitative penchant, Lopez- Ramos artworks are usually structured on multiple visual and semantic layers of contrasting iconographies from which a concept emerges. It all morphs into a sort of palimpsest when superimposed on abstract expressionist backgrounds. His work is discussed in the book Cuban Artists Across the Diaspora: Setting the Tent Against the House by Andrea O’Reilly Herrera, University of Texas Press, 2011, and is represented by Jorge Mendez Gallery.of Palm Springs, California.

 

 

 

Honduran born American artist Emilio Martinez embraced painting as a means of expression.  He was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 1981. He immigrated with his family to Miami in 1994, where he has resided since. His work comes to life through his persistence of the dream realm – created through the constant repetitive dreams from his childhood memories. He has ongoing contact with the spiritual world through icons, symbols and texts from an unknown past of ancient primitive indigenous descendants.His work comes to life through the bi-cultural puzzle, which he decodes. On a daily basis he uses a sketchbook where he records his obsessions, passions, and fears. His palette is of a true colorist. His imagery from the primitive warriors of the past rendered Emilio as one of the most authentic creators in Miami. He has works in private and corporate collections in the U.S. and abroad.

 

 

 

Bryan McFarlane is a professor of painting and drawing at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and has been a visiting artist at over 35 universities and museums throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean including The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, The Rose Art Museum, The Museum of the National Center of African American Artists, The Dusable Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Tufts University, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, The Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, The Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art, France, The Edna Manly College, Jamaica. McFarlane has exhibited at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts: The Rose Art Museum at Brandies University, Massachusetts College of Art, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, The National Gallery of Jamaica, Canzares Gallery Brazil, the Museum of The National Center of African American Artists; to name a few.