Galleries
ROKTOWA
Art flex and levity, downtown.
Roktowa is located in a very rough-and-ready part of town, in a partly derelict five-storey warehouse built in the1920s on the corner of Pechon Street, opposite the old railway station. Originally the Red Stripe brewery, it is now home to the Roktowa art collective workshop and gallery that occupies the first floor. It’s a massive area, with thick columns, high ceilings and huge pane-glass windows – a great space for art exhibitions, workshops and installations.
Started in 2008 by Australian sculptor and curator Melinda Brown, Roktowa is many things and constantly evolving: There’s an informal cultural art residency programme for visiting artists – “they spend a few weeks or months and can hook into the community skills which abound in the downtown area, there are over 50 woodwork shops within a mile radius, producing some excellent work, “ says Melinda. There are several innovative projects underway, one is creating functional art from alabaster: “Our focus is on fine and applied art, (moving away from the arts and crafts concept of the 50s). By introducing design into the vocabulary, and by extension industrial design we are producing value-added art, fostering a viable creative alternative economy. So we take this beautiful stone (that is crushed and used in the construction industry) and sculpt it into lamp bases, bathroom accessories and tableware. We also do clay work, sourcing and processing red earthenware ‘Trench Town’ clay dug right in this area, and we work with potters who use the old traditional firing methods. We do metal work, painting and decorative art. We are now expanding into film production and graphic design.” The last major exhibition was a joint show with sculptor Laura Facey who staged ‘Propel’ and ‘Trembling Heart’ which featured glass beaded tapestry, assemblages, metal work and mixed media art by twelve Haitian artists who visited after the earthquake. Part of the project was to create one of kind large-scale books of art (the cover featuring a sculpture, with some pages of wood, metal etc.,) for auction in New York. “We have had ‘pop-up shows at Red Bones café and the Pan Jam mini gallery. Roktowa café opened in October (9am -3pm, Mon –Fri) offering a wide selection of authentic Jamaican dishes.
