ORANJESTAD—Yesterday, Cas di Cultura launched the painting exhibition “E Caribe: Silencio y Biento” by Grace Ashruf. The exposition of the artist’s new collection of 63 paintings will remain open for two weeks at Cas di Cultura, now through November 29, 2005, and can be viewed daily from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Sunday.
The title of the exhibition, “E Caribe: Silencio y Biento” (The Caribbean: Silence and Space), has a special meaning to Grace. “I have been living in the Caribbean for nine years now and have visited several islands in the region. One of the first things I notice when I arrive on an island and step off the plane is this special warm welcoming wind and a feeling of silence and space….people on the islands are relaxed and friendly in a natural way,” she feels.
Among the 63 paintings included in the exhibition, viewers will see the Caribbean through the artist’s eyes and her brush. The theme of tranquility echoes through depictions of typical houses, highly simplified landscapes, open land, water, mountains, palm trees, sunsets, and skies. “When looking at my paintings you will hear and feel the wind, feel the tranquility and the silence. You will hear the song of the wind because your eyes will be drawn to follow the circular texture I create as a base on most of my paintings,” she explains.
Grace tries to capture a feeling, a moment in time, when she paints. “The sailboats I have painted do not express the technical aspects of the boat. For me the painting evokes how one might go through life: alone, with a partner, with a group as a family…floating on quiet waters, fighting in troubled or wild waters.” For more inspiration she took a week sailing course in St. Maarten.
In several of Grace’s new works she gave special attention to the island’s typical cunucu house. “I hope they never disappear; they are so important to the traditions of the island’s past. I see them standing alone in the wide landscape of Aruba,” she comments. For Grace, working on this collection was like embracing the Caribbean, in particular, her home of Aruba.
Grace categorizes her work as representational abstract. Explains the artist, “I like to have a subject the viewer can relate to. While creating a painting I like to involve the viewer in the painting by prompting them to ask themselves questions—wondering why I painted something a certain why, why I might have left out a detail, why the color is not the same throughout a painting…I have an expressive brushstroke that seems to evoke mystery.”
Grace is inspired by everyday scenes around her, and scenes witnessed through travel. “So many artist have inspired me along the way...William Turner for his boats and expressive brushstrokes, Pablo Picasso for his cubism, Henri Matisse for his lines and color combinations, and John Sargent Singer for his texture and brushstroke, just to name a few. I also get inspiration from new art materials and new colors,” Grace informs.
Grace would like to thank Unoca and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds for their assistance with the exhibition, as well as Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds N.A., who purchased two paintings from the new collection.
Grace Ashruf welcomes all to her exhibition.
