Michael Robinson, Gleaner Writer

Born at the turn of the last century, Edna Swithenbank was the middle child of an English father and a Jamaican mother. She's recorded as having a bold and independent spirit from an early age. By the time she married Norman Manley in 1921, she had already passed through several art schools and studied with Maurice Harding, an animal sculptor. The artist in her was awakened, but limited by contemporary aesthetic views.

The following year, Edna moved to Jamaica with Norman and found herself in a country with no creative identity. Watercolour landscapes, painted for the most part by amateurs, were the order of the day. The island's effect on Edna was almost immediate and her first piece created here, 'Beadseller', marked the beginning of her mature expression. It was apparent that something about this jewel in the Caribbean Sea resonated with Edna Manley.

Creative output

Over time, her relationship with sculpture and with Jamaica grew to be deeply spiritual. Her effect on the creative output of the country was as extensive as it was undeniable. She epitomised the role of the artist as a channel, producing works that were personal, yet imbued with the energies of the people and events that surrounded her. Edna grew as an artist while Jamaica was growing as a nation. Her 'Negro Aroused' was created during a tumultuous time for the people of this country, who were in the throes of shedding themselves of colonial rule.

She and her husband played pivotal roles in the manifestation of Jamaica's independence. While Norman was weaving the legal and political fabric of a new nation, Edna was liberating the soul of Jamaica through art. In 1950, she founded the Jamaica School of Art which eventually became the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts (EMC).

EMC celebrated the life and work of Manley during its Edna Manley Week, which ended Saturday. The week's activities included a thanksgiving service at St Stephen Church; a memorial lecture by Dr Krista Thompson from Northwestern University and the EMC Faculty Show at the school's CAG(e) Gallery. The output of the EMC faculty has been traditionally viewed as a nexus of Jamaican art. As a result, the annual exhibition has quickly become one of the gallery's flagship events.

Defies categorisation

Nearly two dozen members of EMC staff are represented in this year's installation. Carol Campbell's 'It is Not Brooch' is a statement about artists' aversion to being pigeonholed. Largely regarded as a maker of jewellery, Campbell presents viewers with a copper breadfruit leaf usually expected as part of a sculptor's oeuvre. Artists create images, this piece shouts, and defies categorisation.

The photography of Marlon James, one of the younger artists on display, harks back to the audacity of pop art in the 1950s and '60s. Having mastered technique, artists went on to create work with content and subject matter that ordinarily would not have contained profundity. The depth came out of the fact that, by focusing on certain aspects of everyday scenes and objects, and by paying serious attention to the technical side of their craft, they were able to hew poetry out of the mundane. 'Mitch and Chedda' is a series of silver gelatin prints that emphasise an interplay of textures, man and woman, light and shadow, graffiti and tattoos and varied emotions are all part of the many layers of textures explored by James. His 'Glo' is an adventurous fusion of painting and photography.

These are but a couple of the artists on display in a show that lives up to the spirit of its muse. Edna Manley originally envisioned the art school as a place where, contrary to the tradition of classroom art, tutors and students would work side by side in studio. The fact that so many of the school's tutors continue to practice their craft with a continual focus on exploration and growth is testament to the vision and inspiration of the school's famous co-founder. The woman who is largely regarded as the mother of Jamaican art has influenced this country and its artists as much as the land and the people affected her and her work.

The show runs until March 20.