CALABAR GALLERY HARLEM: 2504 Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY 10030. 646-964-5062 Website:Calabar Gallery and Instagram page (please follow us here too).
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Welcome to CALABAR GALLERY. We showcase contemporary African Artists and African Diaspora artists globally. Based in Harlem, work featured is inspired and influenced by black African culture globally with a focus on dynamic ideas about art and society.
The disappearing time is the race of life. - Sunday Adelaja
If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.- Maya Angelou
Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations.- Mae Jemison
I began the week with a local news feature about our gallery on Spectrum NY1, see here. The feature can be seen on our Facebook page here. It is part of our pr and outreach strategy to do local engagement.
March came in so quickly because February is that short, but Black History is everyday. There was too much going on across that month so I am taking a breather to really concentrate on finalizing several key collaborations that we began to explore in January.
This month we are in talks with ART AFRICAfor a series of collaborations and will have an announcement soon. We are also finalized a collaboration with BKLYN COMMONS which we will announce March 15. And finally, we will continue to announce the newest set of artists we will represent exclusively and those we have strategic relationships with.
This week,the David Prize, now in its second year goes into its third stage to select finalists, and as an advisor for the second year, I am ever so grateful to continue to see how visionaries in New York create dynamic solutions to problems that exist. The David Prize is a celebration of individuals and ideas to create a better, brighter New York City. Open to any individual working in the five boroughs, the Prize welcomes those with the grit and vision to change our communities, our culture and our future for good. It's been an honor to work directly with the executive director, other advisors and the Walentas Foundation with the key goal to select 5 extraordinary individuals.
Last year, we selected these five people who really are what New York is. It gave me pride to help select the winners, real New Yorkers working on the ideas that create real and substantive change. In that spirit, I have joined yet another innovative idea and project, The Downtown Biennial,as an advisor which is focused on Manhattan and will help steer the rebuilding of the arts sector in the city.The Downtown Biennial is an artist led cultural enterprise that reasserts economic self-reliance, artistic experimentation, and non-conformity through a series of collaborative exhibitions and happenings. A decentralized curatorial program developed by several artists-as curators will promote artistic values as seen and defined by the field’s active practitioners. More details will be revealed in the next few weeks. If you are interested in participating - especially in funding it in any way, please reach out to me at info@calabargallery.com
I will continue to keep tabs on vaccinations - currently in our zip code, just 6% have taken it, so it looks like I will continue to maintain the Covid-19 protocols of masks and sanitizers for our gallery.
Stay healthy, safe and spread the word about our gallery. We are asking each of you to share our email with 3 friends - and ask them to SIGN UP HERE.
Atim
Atim Annette Oton
Curator and Gallery Director
JOIN US FOR OUR FIRST EXHIBITION OF 2021:
A HYBRID FORMAT OF AN AN ONSITE AND VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
IF YOU ARE IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA IN APRIL, WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU ATTEND OUR FIRST EXHIBITION OF 2021. YOU CAN REGISTER BELOW TOATTEND. YES, WE WILL BE FOLLOWING STRICT COVID PROTOCOLS.
HUGE NEWS - We are getting ready for our first OPEN HOUSE. Yes, I said OPEN HOUSE. We are projecting to open the gallery to having our first live onsite event but it is only open to NYC area residents. We thought we try something really different and re-introduce ourselves since it's been a while.
Join us for our first onsite event: an open house, a talk about the Black Women Art Collectors Project and an exhibition preview. It's for April 17 and 18 from 1pm to 6pm.
We will practice Covid-19 protocols and permit 10 people at a time, only 10 people, so every half an hour, we will expect a new audience - we are calling this our #covid #people #movable #installation. So register below for a time in our schedule. We will be reaching out to confirm that you do live in the vicinity and will actually come. Yes, it's a #covid exclusive event
Our weekend begins on this weekend and will have time slots on both Saturday and Sunday. We will talk about two projects: our first live exhibition in a long while and arts collectors project.
JOIN ME FOR A DISCUSSION ON THE ART WHALE SERIES Hosted by Art Critic Grishma Khodaria
It will be a A Live Gallery Tour along with Conversations
ARTIST OF THE WEEK: PAMELLA ALLEN
This week, we are pleased to announce we are exploring an exclusive contract to represent and sell the work of PAMELLA ALLEN who is based in Brooklyn, New York, to show and sell her work directly to our buyers and collectors. If you do not know her work - we are pleased to introduce her to you. We are offering these pieces to be sold as well as some others, and you can contact us via this email - info@calabargallery.com
Life is Mystery Love, 30”x30”x1”
Encaustic, rice paper & mixed media on canvas
A Peace, 2018.
16”x20” Encaustic on Canvas
She & Dacta Bird, 2019, 63"x63"x2.5”
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
Ella I, 28”x22”x1”,
Acrylic & mixed media on canvas
Pamella Allen is descendent of a long line of mystic storytellers. Through her work, she investigates the intersections of memory and nature, body and soul. A Jamaica born, Brooklyn based artist, she uses artifacts from her life experiences pulled from memory and observation, her work is layered in process: mixed media paintings, printmaking, sculpture, paper making, Installation, photography/video essay & prose combine to create her own archetype; a universal language of images found and remembered that speaks to the diversity of her heritage, lived experiences and reverence for the mystic found in our natural world.
"Born hard-wired to replicate what I see, the creative process is an intuitive one for me that is greatly informed by the mystic beauty of the natural world and my experiences with death and impermanence.
In my infancy, it was the death of my mother followed by its relentless recurrence over the course of my lifetime that has driven me to seek out, replicate and create all that I can and cannot see to explore these confounding mysteries. I breath, I paint, I live in an attempt to capture what I have observed in my travels around the world, over land and sea, and find place in it."
WHAT'S NEW: CaFA ART FAIR in BARBADOS in March 2021
CALABAR GALLERY will be at CAFA ART FAIR 2021.
CAFA Art Fair will be hosted virtually from March 10– March 24, 2021 with invited galleries and artists.
We will be showing the work of these artists in Barbados
Danielle Scott
Mario Joyce Belyusar
Musah Swallah
Sonia E. Barrett
Elan Cardiz
Alexandre Kyungu
Donchellee Fulwood
Mulenga J. Mulenga
OUR FACEBOOK LIVE ART TALK SERIES -
JOIN US EVERY MONTH ON FACEBOOK LIVE
ART TALK: DIALOGUES
ART COLLECTING STRATEGIES
A Series by Calabar Gallery, New York
CHARLES MOORE
A Talk With Curator Atim Annette Oton @AtimAnnetteOton
DATE: MARCH 15, 2021
TIME: 4pm EST, 9pm GMT,
9PM UTC, 11pm CAT
WHERE: FACEBOOK LIVE
AT CALABAR GALLERY
AND FB GROUP Calabar Gallery
Charles Moore is an art historian, art collector, author, and doctorate student in art education and museum studies at Columbia University. Moore holds an MBA from St John's University and a Master's in museum studies from Harvard University. As a participant in the Artis Curatorial Residency Program, his research brings contemporary visual artists from Israel into dialogue with his research topics. He has written on the economics of art and contemporary artists for publications as diverse as Artnet, Artsy Editorial, Arte Fuse, Cultured Magazine and Fine Arts Connoisseur Magazine
HUGE NEWS:
MONDAY, MARCH 22
JOIN US AT 4:00PM EST
ART TALK: DIALOGUES
ART COLLECTING STRATEGIES
A Series by Calabar Gallery, New York
ROGER C. TUCKER III
HALIMA TAHA
DEREK WARE
With Curator Atim Annette Oton @AtimAnnetteOton
DATE: MARCH 22, 2021
TIME: 4pm EST, 9pm GMT,
9PM UTC, 11pm CAT
WHERE: FACEBOOK LIVE
AT CALABAR GALLERY
AND FB GROUP Calabar Gallery
Collector Roger C. Tucker III is the Director of Tucker Contemporary Art which is focused on collectors and institutions interested in acquiring, exhibiting and promoting emerging contemporary artists, an eclectic mix of artists that challenge class, culture, gender and racial boundaries and define the global contemporary art world today. Roger is a recognized art industry influencer, using social media and live events to advocate for a more inclusive art community that embraces the unique voices of diverse artists.
Halima Taha is best known for her groundbreaking book Collecting African American Art: Works on Paper and Canvas (1998, 2005), the first book to validate collecting African American fine art and photography as an asset and commodity in the marketplace. Ms. Taha’s forthcoming publication, Collecting Contemporary African and Black American Art in the 21st Century is an expanded and lavishly illustrated how to and reference guide with specific criteria for becoming an informed collector at every level.
Collector Derek Ware is a Professor of Economics at a local college in Newark, NJ. His introduction to collection of art began early in his adult years during his attending Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. During that experience he joined Crossroad, which is the African version of the peace corps, and in this experienced travel to several countries in African assisting in building schools, hospitals and water treatments plants. Collection began with taking souvenirs back home, and studying it meanings and purposes.
I am now open to doing speaking engagements, so please send us your inquiries to info@calabargallery.com
Atim Annette Oton, Curator, Art Fundraiser, Strategist, and Entrepreneur, Director, Calabar Gallery and Art Consulting Director, The Creative Side and Nigerian-born, American and British educated designer turned Curator.
Atim Annette Oton is an art curator, gallerist, art and design fundraiser, visionary thinker, strategist, and entrepreneur whose expertise is in art and design education, exhibition curation and design, and retail with over 25 years of experience. She has raised over $3 million dollars for art and design institutions as well as several International nonprofits. She has raising funds for Bronx River Arts Center, Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center and Amref Health Africa through art initiatives like auctions.
Please feel free to recommend me- we are available to speak virtually about Art and Galleries in the midst of Covid-19 - at info@calabargallery.com
CALABAR GALLERY as a teaching and information place for art.
We continue this year working hard on our very private Calabar Gallery Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/calabargallery/ and now we are opening it up for you to join. Once you apply and respond to 3 questions, you will join a daily feed of art and cultural articles. This newsletter is free and you can share it but please ask your friends to SIGN UP HERE.
