A to Z of Caribbean Art Launched in Trinidad

Robert & Christopher Publishers has launched its newest, long-awaited art book, A to Z of Caribbean Art. The book is available for pre-order at robertandchristopher.com and will ship from December 1st, 2019. In Trinidad, books can be bought at Paper Based Bookshop (Normandie Hotel), Rainy Days (Ellerslie Plaza) and Con Brio.

A to Z of Caribbean Art is a visual overview of Caribbean art, from the beginning of the 20th century to now. The book serves as a resource of information on many of the most outstanding, prolific, groundbreaking, critical, fascinating, and controversial artists of the region. Sequenced alphabetically, it mixes genres including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, installation and performance.

Edited by Melanie Archer and Mariel Brown, A to Z features works from 260+ artists who come from the English-, Dutch-, French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Each artist is represented by a page that shows a definitive work, biographical details, and a short write-up about their oeuvre. These artists were selected based on a number of factors, including critical discourse around their work, inclusion in a significant publication, work written about in regional or international trade magazine, and participation in a curated exhibition at a major institution, or at a regional or international biennial.  A to Z creates a significant and lasting archive of Caribbean art that can be enjoyed and referenced by artists, art lovers, students, professors, curators, art historians, and culture lovers for years to come.

A to Z of Caribbean Art has been made possible in part through the generous support of our funders, KAÉRA, Shell Trinidad and Tobago Limited, NLCB (National Lotteries Control Board),  the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts,  and backers on Indiegogo.

Guadeloupe supports publishing of A to Z

Trinidad and Tobago illustrated art book imprint, Robert & Christopher Publishers (R&C) is delighted to announce a publishing partnership with Guadeloupe arts organisation, KAERA, towards the publishing and distribution of the forthcoming book, A to Z of Caribbean Art.

With over 40 Trinidad and Tobago visual artists represented, A to Z of Caribbean Art – a comprehensive, visual overview of Caribbean art, from the beginning of the 20th century to now – will be Robert & Christopher Publishers’ sixth title. R&C is currently working towards a Trinidad launch of A to Z at Bocas Lit Fest in late April 2018.

Shell Trinidad and Tobago Limited has made a financial contribution that has been applied to the research and writing phases of the book. R&C has also raised funds through a crowdfunding campaign. While KAERA’s contribution will cover part of the cost of printing the book, R&C is still actively fundraising to cover the balance of costs needed to produce a book of this calibre.

Robert & Christopher Publishers is telling a Caribbean story through the A to Z of Caribbean Art – one of a shared past, connected cultural identities and unfolding selfhood. The strength of this publication comes from the links they are forming by collaborating with writers, editors, curators, artists and institutions here at home and throughout the region.

“We are particularly grateful for KAERA’s support because R&C has been trying, without success, to gain the support of our own local government,” explain Robert & Christopher co-editors, Melanie Archer and Mariel Brown. “We have completed a number of applications for funding; none of these has been successful to this point, but we currently have an application in with the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts. We’re hoping that, like the French government, our own government is able to see the importance of contributing to this seminal project and helping to ensure increased visibility – both within the Caribbean and internationally – and posterity for Trinidad and Tobago artists.”

KAERA is a Guadeloupe-based organisation that promotes artistic achievement in digital or traditional form. KAERA works collaboratively to create and curate art-centred events that will bring greater recognition of Guadeloupean artists.

“We believe that collaboration between the Caribbean islands can only strengthen and enhance our international profile, as well as enrich the practice of participating artists. This spirit of collaboration makes us happy to participate in publishing A to Z of Caribbean Art,” says KAERA director Hélène Dabriou.

Robert & Christopher Publishers (R&C) is a small and ambitious illustrated art book imprint based in Trinidad and Tobago. Its primary concern is to produce high-quality books that document and elucidate our Caribbean story, as seen through the eyes of Caribbean artists.  R&C’s dedicated team aims to produce the highest quality of relevant books that will be accessible to a wide reading and creative audience, in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and internationally. R&C is the first Caribbean imprint to have a book distributed by Distributed Art Publishers (DAP), the most prestigious distributor of illustrated art books, with clients that include the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Guggenheim and many more. As a result, R&C’s books can be found in the libraries of MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Columbia University, New York University, The University of Virginia, The University of California. Our titles can also be found in local and regional institutions including The University of the West Indies, The University of Trinidad and Tobago, the National Gallery of Jamaica and many more.

In addition to its most recent title, See Me Here: A Survey of Contemporary Self-Portraits from the Caribbean, Robert & Christopher has also published: Pictures from Paradise: A Survey of Contemporary Caribbean Photography, Che Lovelace: Paintings 2004 – 2008, Meiling: Fashion Designer and Barbara Jardine: Goldsmith. In 2014, R&C was invited to co-curate an exhibition, “Pictures from Paradise,” with Wedge Curatorial Projects in Toronto, Canada, as part of the annual CONTACT Photography Festival – the largest public photography festival in the world.

Meet our Jamaica writers

Work continues apace on the A to Z, and we’re happy to introduce our two writers from Jamaica: Monique Barnett-Davidson and Nicole Smythe-Johnson. Barnett-Davidson has worked in various aspects of the visual arts in Jamaica including art education, exhibition programming and development, as well as art museum education and research. She is currently the Assistant Curator in Education at the National Gallery of Jamaica. Smythe-Johnson is a writer and independent curator based in Kingston. She has written for several local and international publications. Most recently, she was Assistant Curator on Neither Day Nor Night (2017) an exhibition of the work of John Dunkley at the Perez Art Museum in Miami. She is currently Editor of Caribbean Quarterly, the University of the West Indies’ flagship journal.

A to Z success with Indiegogo!

Our recently concluded crowdfunding campaign for A to Z of Caribbean Art has been a great success and brought us a tremendous boost as we move forward with work on the book.

Thank you so much to everyone who backed our campaign or shared our links or encouraged others to support. We really couldn’t have done it without you!

See Me Here reviewed in The CRB

See Me Here is reviewed by Nicole Smythe-Johnson in the September 2016 issue of The Caribbean Review of Books.

“I recommend regarding the volumes in this series as exhibitions, rather than as books. Yes, they function as books: they are portable documents of artwork of a certain type, from a certain region, in a certain time. However, they also make deliberate use of the logic of the art exhibition — the establishment of visual relationships, a focus on placement and space, etc. The series makes an argument — not as a literary text does, but as a visual one does. In this way, they are truly successful art-books, fusing the two media in the best possible way. To own a copy, then, is to have a portable exhibition, open for viewing the moment you part the pages.”   Read the full review here…

Meet the See Me Here artists and our new cover!

See Me Here cover
 
We are so excited to be able to share the front cover of our new title, See Me Here: A Survey of Contemporary Self-Portraits from the Caribbean with you! The cover features a piece by Barbadian artist, Sheena Rose, called Clown or What, from Rose’s “Sweet Gossip” series. Sheena is one of 25 artists from around the English-speaking Caribbean whose work will be featured in See Me Here.
The artists included in the book are:
Akuzuru
Ashraph
Ewan Atkinson
James Cooper
John Cox
Renee Cox
Annalee Davis
Susan Dayal
Laura Facey
Joscelyn Gardner
Lawrence Graham-Brown
Anna Ruth Henriques
Nadia Huggins
Michelle Isava
O’Neil Lawrence
Jaime Lee Loy
Che Lovelace
Joshua Lue Chee Kong
Olivia McGilchrist
Steve Ouditt
Sheena Rose
Irénée Shaw
Roberta Stoddart
Stacey Tyrell
Dave Williams
The essay, “Picturing Self”, was written by Marsha Pearce.
See Me Here will be launched in Trinidad and Tobago during the Bocas Lit Fest, April 24th at Medulla Art Gallery, Woodbrook.
See Me Here is published by Robert & Christopher Publishers, edited by Melanie Archer and Mariel Brown, and designed by Richard Mark Rawlins.

We've got a US Distributor!


 
We are thrilled to announce that our recent title, Pictures from Paradise, has been picked up for distribution in North America by Distributed Art Publishers (D.A.P. / artbook.com). D.A.P. is the world’s top distributor of art books and exhibition catalogues published by leading museums and independent publishers, including MoMA, SFMoMA and the Guggenheim. Robert & Christopher is the first Caribbean publisher to be distributed by this prestigious company, and we’re feeling pretty great that the 18 artists featured in Pictures from Paradise will gain additional exposure from this access to a US market. If you’d like to have a look at D.A.P.’s Spring 2013 catalogue, click here. (You’ll find us on page 100!)
Pictures from Paradise will hit stores in North America in March – check back soon for an updated list of retailers. As part of our distribution deal with D.A.P., the title will also be available via amazon.com  from the end of March, so place your advance orders now!
Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. is America’s premier source for books on twentieth century art, photography, design and aesthetic culture. Founded in 1990 in downtown New York at a time when fine and sometimes esoteric international art books had a difficult time making their way into the wider American marketplace, over the past two decades D.A.P. has grown into a major international distributor of books, special editions and rare publications from an array of the world’s most respected publishers, museums and cultural institutions.
D.A.P. is the exclusive North American representative of such major American museum publishers as the Guggenheim Museum; the Aspen Art Museum; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Fine Arts Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among many others. Some of the independent international publishers represented by D.A.P. include Aperture, Charta, Chris Boot, Damiani, Editorial RM, Exact Change, Fuel, Gregory R. Miller & Co., Hatje Cantz, JRP|Ringier, Metropolis Books, NAi, Picturebox, Poligrafa, Turner and Walther König.