Balancing delicately on a surf board, Che Lovelace competed in the championships in El Salvador, recently. On Tuesday, he was far removed from the crescendo of raging waters, in the Medulla Art Gallery Studio at 37 Fitt Street, Woodbrook. The smell of the ocean was replaced by a whiff of strong chocolate from the adjacent factory. Lovelace, son of acclaimed novelist Earl Lovelace, and father of Roscoe, three, was focusing on another of his passions—painting. He had the distinction of being the first artist to exhibit at the newly opened gallery which retains a rustic charm. The brown building is enhanced with lanterns and green ferns nestled in baskets that swung from the ledge of the front verandah. The patch of dasheen bush leaves at the front entrance look like broad-leaved evergreens catching the rays of the punishing mid-afternoon sunshine. Descending the staircase, Lovelace surveyed Studio Swap. Lovelace has stepped out of the realm of painting small subjects like a pretty flower or a cat curled up in a basket. Instead his brush had focused intimately on the human body.
The large-scale paintings demonstrate Lovelace’s increased focus on movement of the human body in various environments and photography. Like the Psalmist David, Lovelace’s collection declares: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Lovelace said: “The exhibition is about focusing on the human body and costuming and Carnival. It is about reflecting performance as part of the work process, executing and photographing specific actions, out of which I develop my paintings. I produce short stop motion films from these performances.” Reverting to an interview with artist Peter Diog, Lovelace added: “I am always interested in the idea of depicting movement. I have a few Blue Devils that remind me of the buoyancy of a Trini that I painted in a quick gestural style—quite simple and direct. “There’s one I call Shot, where the Blue Devil is sort of elevated up and about where you feel there’s a movement. You don’t know what to expect. They might munch on a rubber crab.”
Closer look at human body
The paintings in action mode assault the senses. The human body dominates with a “raw sense of kinetic energy.” Lovelace purposely left out the frames for added effect. The human body is transformed into a dancing, celebratory, acrobatic, reclining, crouching and laissez faire mass. The bodies are not given recognizable faces. Lovelace likened them to poems which are subject to the reader’s interpretation. The lower floor generates its own measure of bacchanalia and excitement with Man Wining On A Wall, whom Trinis would describe as Real Head. His motions might even be captured on Orpheus Mirror and earn him a hot Lash in the still of Night. “They are like figures existing in space. They are like poems.”
Celebrating the Trini body
On a subtler note, he is celebrating the Trini body in bold colours like reds, blues, greens and blues. “You would see a person that someone from another might call obese for Carnival. Instead of covering up, they would put on a Spandex tights. They are quite ready to go with the flow. It is that way of appreciating the body size...whether it is fat or slim.” The rum shop and the rum culture are entrenched in the Trini psyche, too. Lovelace said: “That picture is of a guy (Fatman Dance—on D Ground) slumped outside a rum shop. He soused himself with liquor and can’t go any further. He is like a typical drunkard. He might decide to sing his favourite song or he might sleep off the rum. He is in a happy space.” Mounted on the upper floor are a slew of paintings like Soldier With Flower, about to engage in a Garden Ritual to impress the Figure on the Wall.
About Che Lovelace
He studied painting at L’Ecole Regionale des Beaux Arts de la Martinique. He first showed in Trinidad at Aquarela Galleries in 1991 and in 1993. He recently showed at the 2011 Volta Art Fair in New York, represented by the Fine Arts Society Gallery, London. A selection of his portraits was recently exhibited at the Pertwee Anderson and Gold Gallery, London, United Kingdom. In 1999, he was awarded the UNESCO-Aschberg Artist bursary and he worked in London for several months under the auspices of INIVA (Institute of International Visual Arts) after he competed artist’s residencies in Uganda and Venezuela. Lovelace even produced a series of photographs which showed how the work progressed. As a lagniappe, he had renowned actor Will Smith provide some “movement” when he visited T&T shores recently.
• People interested in purchasing Che Lovelace’s art can do so at 772-5859 (c) or 740-7597 (c)
