Solo Exhibition by Laura Facey in September

Internationally acclaimed Jamaican artist Laura Facey is set to launch her solo exhibition "Radiant Earth" in the School's gallery in London from 25th September.

Facey’s exhibition is a retrospective of her awe-inspiring work, including the much talked-about slave ship canoe titled "Their Spirits Gone Before Them" — a cottonwood canoe filled with 1,357 resin miniature figures.

Also on display will be Facey’s "Radiant Comb" series, described by well-known Australian artist and curator Anne Errey as “…Prongs, picks, fingers, teats and tools of cultivation that are re-invented. Some works present the hardest teats in the lactating world, carved from lignum vitae, though they look as though their content would nourish anything it poured over. These combs mean to work a mysterious magic, to untangle, align, nourish, feed and harmonise...”

Facey draws inspiration from rural Jamaica. She lives on a farm that has Taïno middens, burial grounds, sugar coppers, stone walls, great houses and inventories of enslaved Africans, surrounded by forests, rivers and cocoa walks. She uses the materials found near her home thus incorporating cedar, mahogany, lignum vitae and forest wood into her art.

“My work is steeped in this rich history plus my own personal storms and yearnings thereafter for balance and harmony,” says Facey. “My work is a natural outpouring that claims my triumph in life and my need to share and pass on that triumph.”

With its serenity, "Radiant Earth" will certainly intrigue and impress the London art scene and, significantly, it will inspire conversation long after the exhibit closes.

This meaningful exhibition will be held at The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, 19 – 22 Charlotte Road, EC2A 3SG, London, opening on Wednesday 25th September and closing on Friday 4th October. Admission is free.