Michael Robinson, Gleaner Writer

Miami Beach, Laura Fung - Contributed

Art in Focus', Olympia Gallery's annual group exhibit, opens this Thursday.

Now in its eighth year, the show will feature newcomers Dirk Koolmess, Laura-Ann Fung and Cuban artist Estela.

The show will also feature new works by a host of familiar names like George Rodney, Gene Pearson, Patrick Waldemar, Lois Sherwood, Bryan Mcfarlane, Christopher Gonzalez, Milton George, Amy Laskin, Carol Crichton, Margaret McGhie, Dorothy Henriques-Wells, P.J. Stewart, Cecil Cooper, Omari Ra, Ray Jackson, Mazola Wa Mwashigadi, Leopold Barnes, Beverley Oliver, and Ann Ventura, among others.

Estele is a Cuban industrial designer who specialises in clothes and textiles.

"Octavia is the character I always paint," she says, "and she has a purpose: she wants to fly away. That's why she always has wings, or she is building something to fly, or she has butterflies or birds. I think this is not because we live in Cuba, but because we are human and every single human being loves to escape."

Her works are part of major collections in Spain, the United States, Croatia, England, Belgium, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Mexico, Jamaica, and Cuba.

Koolmess creates sculptures in wood. A native of the Netherlands, he grew up with the smell of sawdust and woodchips in his father's carpentry workshop, which led to a natural choice of working in that medium. Here, in Jamaica, he favours cedar, Jamaican oak and guango.

"The wood returns to me what I give it, there is nothing else. No interference. The wood, me and a chisel, locked in a closed system where time stands still. All I need to do is to bring the wood back to life," says the artist.

The two foreigners add an international element to a show filled with quality work from a slew of Jamaica's finest artistic talent. Art in Focus is set to be opened by film-maker and art collector Maxine Walters.