Bal Harbour

C O U R T E S Y O F B A H A M A R G A L L E R Y A N D A R T C E N T E R /G I O S WA BY Who are some "It" Bahamian artists producing this more complex work? The majority are female: Gio Swaby, Cydne Jasmin Coleby, April Bey, and Melissa Alcena immediately come to mind. Some of the male artists include Lavar Munroe and Tavares Strachan, but I could give you 15 more names—there's a lot of talent here. Where can potential buyers find it? Our two galleries here at Baha Mar bring to the fore those artists we think are the most relevant and dynamic. We're always happy to refer people to other commercial galleries, too. Most of them are here on New Providence, our capital. Some are owned by former associates who worked here with us and wanted to start their own galleries, some are connected to other smaller hotels, and some are standalone. It's a small island, so drive an hour in one direction and you're going to hit two or three of them. What should people consider when buying the art? Look at the portfolio of the artists you're interested in and get to know their DNA. What have they done before, what are they doing now, and what will they have going on in the next two or three years? And there's a universal set of other things to consider, such as the craftsmanship. Are materials going to be archival? Is the work on acid-free paper? What kind of frame is this? What kind of adhesive was used to put these things together? The people working in a responsible gallery should be able to answer these types of questions. Shipping is important, too. We build specific crates for everything we sell, and we have team members who are highly skilled at packing art. In fact, other galleries pay us to pack the artwork they need to ship. Is Bahamian art a good investment opportunity? There definitely are examples of this as more Bahamian art and artists enter the regional and international ecosystem. We recently had the resort's collection appraised and the [value of] works by Gio Swaby, for example, had increased significantly. We purchased nine of her pieces for less than $2,000 each six or seven years ago, and they just appraised for nearly $9,000 each. And last year, during Art Basel Miami Beach, she sold three large pieces at SCOPE [Art Show] for $60,000 to $65,000 each. Looking ahead, what changes do you see as local artists continue to elevate Bahamian art? In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Junkanoo artist Jackson Burnside, a cultural activist who has since passed away, would say to wait until 2020. By then, he believed, more tourists would be coming to The Bahamas for our culture than for fun times at sea. It became a mantra for a lot of us who work in the art industry and interface with tourism. We're not there yet, but I believe we're moving toward that. "Bahamian art has evolved and gotten more complex and delves deeper into the fabric of our culture." Gio Swaby's She Used to be Scare of Hair Comb IV, 2017, part of Baha Mar's permanent collection BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M

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