Aruba’s Art Week in its 7th edition, featured over 100 local artists and artisans and was nicely attended by the Aruban community, September 6th, 7th, and 8th, 2024, in San Nicolas.
The art week program included different attractions and performances, workshops, and exhibits, including the Art-Fashion spectacle on opening night, which I regrettably missed for the first time, ever.
Earlier in the year, AAF published a call for action for Artists & Crafters to get ready to ACTIVATE their creativity. In fact, art week created a platform on which to REBEL, MARCH, and CHANGE the art world, and the island. Artists were asked to showcase their unique work within a revolutionary movement where every piece told a story of transformation.
The theme REBEL, MARCH, and CHANGE, dictated the message of the artwork, and each of the artists taking part chose his/her own cause and present issues close to their heart, aspects of life on the island they would like to see changed.
Organizers set up two galleries, Artisa, where established artists showed their evolution, finding news paths, for their recurrent themes, and Space 21, dedicated to Mother Nature and Human Nature, where artists elaborated on their relationship with nature and with people. The contemporary art exhibit was the third gallery, and if you did not walk past Kulture Café at the end of the main street, you missed it.
The addition of a Contemporary Art show was special. Art week included exciting contemporary art shows, in the past, presented by Atelier 89, but then the building that housed them, was renovated and rented to the ministry of the nature and environment. For 2024, the abandoned two story, neo classical government building on the square, past Kulture Café, was used to host the installations, by an eclectic group of artists. It resulted in a rewarding and thought provoking experience for visitors.
The repurposed first floor presented Velvet Ramos, with the Feast. Velvet threw a thick carpet of fallen leaves and garden clippings on the oblong’s room floor on which she prepared a feast, an ancestral herbal tea one day, and two traditional vegetable stews on the next days. Velvet is a nature advocate, and her installation showcased the riches of nature, earth, soil and indigenous plants, and the need to preserve these for our own sustenance.
Justin Croes, across the hall, presented Awaken the Ancestral Ties, highlighting our pre-Colombian culture and way of life. Justin goes back to our roots, by applying rucu to the floor, walls, and his own clothing, allowing the earthy red color made from Annatto seeds, to take us back in history, to our early days on earth, when rucu was used to embellish bodies and give food a special aroma when infused in oil.
Performance artist Natusha Croes, interpreted her family story, her heritage, reflecting on motherhood and her quest to define her identity, with a special show on Saturday.
Samuel Sarmiento, on the second floor, introduced Chants from Oranjestad. He is a folky storyteller and mixes voodoo and mythology in his fantastic, ornamental work. He is now recognized as an international artist.
Jowie Maasdamme, showed a series of non-conformist canvases under the title I have no interest in maintaining your perception of me. Jowie is her own woman, and establishes her female autonomy with her art.
Remember fashion student Darwin Winklaar? He bloomed into a multi-dimensional artist, mixing fashion, music, and performance into an installation titled Coastal, where he paid homage to the island’s two recently lost fishermen.
An artist from St Martin, Lisandro Suriel, shipped interesting video work exploring his Indian roots, to Aruba, and was part of the contemporary art show.
Curator Renwich Heronimo reports getting very positive feedback for his work on the festival. He sees the evolution of art on the island and the progress made by artists and attributes that to the annual art fair that cross promotes and pollinates styles and feeds artistic souls with inspiration.
While at first, he said he would dedicate three years to the effort of organizing the fair, which takes a lot of work, at the end of three years he believes he would stay on, as curator, a short while longer, because the results are so satisfying, the development of artists very valuable, and the emergence of new trends so profound.
Tito Bolivar is the motor behind the Art Fair, each year, and he continues his efforts of adding more murals to San Nicolas, dubbed the biggest open air art gallery in the Caribbean – in competition with Curacao. The new murals also attracted attention of viewers. Some of the artists invited to this year’s edition are Studio Giftig from Holland, Rosie Woods from the United Kingdom, Carlos Alberto from Mexico, Chemis from the Czech Republic, a repeat visitor, and Sabotaje al Chantaje from Spain as well as our local talent such as Armando Goedgedrag, Paul, Wong, Omaira Silva and Robby Solognier in collaboration with Alex Koolman.
A well-organized Media Relations person fulfilled two of my requests, efficiently. Tks
Thank you mosaic artist Omaira Silva, for your assistance!
Tito reports that over 5,500 visited the fair and enjoyed it, perhaps not as many as in previous years but they had a much better experience with more curated artwork in the galleries and many more artists, both beginners and well-established ones, running booths and presenting collections, along the main street.
While the art fair is over, Tito keeps San Nicolas’ art scene awake, year round.
Thank you to sponsors: Aruba Tourism Authority, Prins Bernhard CultuurFonds, Mondriaan Fonds, Departamento di Cultura Aruba, Cas di Cultura, La Cabana Beach Resort & Casino, Unoca, Marriott Aruba Resort & Stellaris Casino, L’Oreal Aruba by Romar Trading, Eagle Aruba Resort y Elite Productions & De Palm Tours. @artweekaruba #artfairaruba2024
