By ELISA TURNER The Miami Heraldelisaturn@aol.com
Sweeping sand.
Slaying dragons.
Savoring color.
It's all in a day's work to make art in the Bahamas.
These jobs come to fruition in the art for WORK! at Diaspora Vibe Gallery, organized with Popopstudios in Nassau. It's a challenging show of art made with sand, color and even a dragon -- but this beast is more verbal than vicious. It appears as a word on a painting by John Cox, who founded Popopstudios eight years ago in Nassau.
It makes sense that art from the islands comes to Diaspora Vibe in Miami's Design District. ''I've been exposed to so many Caribbean artists by coming here,'' Cox said at the opening party on Aug. 9. ``I've met artists here from St. Martin, Trinidad and Cuba. Miami is definitely a hub for the Caribbean.''
''It's a smaller version of the world,'' said Heimo Schmid, another artist in the show. ''The Bahamas is extremely diverse. . . . We have Germans, Americans, Canadians, Jamaicans, Haitians, people from Europe and Asia.'' Cox named Popopstudios for the grandfather he never knew, a furniture maker who died before Cox was born. For a time Cox, who studied at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, made furniture in his no-nonsense building.
About 2 ½ years ago, Cox, Schmid, and the others in WORK! got together in the place and started talking about how they might broaden their audience. Artists Blue Curry, Toby Lunn, Jason Bennett and Michael Edwards have been friends for years with Cox and Schmid. Their resumes show they've had sophisticated art education and exhibits far beyond their island home. All but one of the artists came home to make art in Nassau full-time.
Back in the Bahamas, they ran into the same barriers.
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