Readytex Art
Gallery 25 years!
Readytex Art Gallery is 25 years old on February 8th 2018. A
significant milestone! The gallery celebrates this with a special anniversary
exhibition that opens in the evening on March 8th, and is open to
the public from the 9th thru the 24th of
February.
Who would have
thought when the gallery opened its doors on February 8th 1993,
upstairs from the Readytex Craft & souvenirshop at the Maagdenstraat, that
Readytex Art Gallery would be located in such a large and beautiful building 25
years later? And who would have thought then, that Readytex Art Gallery would
someday be the most prominent, active and the most talked about art gallery in
Suriname? A gallery that represents Surinamese top artists with whom she, in
collaboration with various international contacts, goes far beyond the borders
of Suriname?
The gallery
opened 25 years ago primarily because of a love for art, but also to provide in
a need. Several local artists were already bringing small artworks to Readytex,
where they were then sold in the souvenir shop. They clearly needed a space in
which they could offer their work to the public. And space was indeed
available on the floor right above the Readytex store. Thus Readytex Art
Gallery was born on February 8th, 1993.
Over the years
the art collection of the gallery grew. The relationship with the artists
became stronger, the approach more professional and the services were expanded.
An important group of art enthusiasts and collectors started to develop, while
the artists grew and became more ambitious as well. With their studies at the
Nola Hatterman Art Academy, the ‘Academie voor Hoger Kunst en Cultuur
Onderwijs’ (AHKCO), Edna Manley College of the visual and performing arts in
Jamaica, or at institutes in the Netherlands, the artists affiliated with
Readytex Art Gallery possess the potential and the drive to expand their
boundaries, literally and figuratively. This is where the gallery plays an
ever-increasing role. Together with the artists the gallery cultivated many
international relationships, which made it possible for them to regularly
participate in international exhibitions, projects, and artist-in-residencies.
And on the website, anyone from anywhere in the world can view as well as
purchase, art from all artists.
With the
opening of her new, larger location at the Steenbakkerijstraat in 2015,
Readytex Art Gallery can now display many more works of art. At that time we
also started with our monthly Thursday-Night-Features in which artists or other
art professionals give a diverse range of presentations.
The Readytex
Art Gallery platform is extremely valuable, and has become indispensible to the
Surinamese art scene. The momentum is growing steadily. There is a lot of hard
work involved and the challenges are still significant, but the motivation
remains, and we dare to dream bigger and bigger. So keep an eye on the plans
and the activities of Readytex Art Gallery. 2018 will be a special year!
We start with
our anniversary exhibition in which all of our artists will show how their work
has developed over the past years. They each show two works in the exhibition:
one older piece from earlier in their careers, and one recent work. As the
gallery grew so did they after all, and of this they will share a fraction with
the public.
The exhibition
is open from February 9th – 24th, Monday thru Friday
from 8:00 am – 4:30 pm and on Saturday from 8:30 am – 1:30 pm, with extra
nighttime opening hours on Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th of
February from 7:00 – 9:00 pm.
On Saturday the
10th of February at 7:30 pm, Managing Director Monique
NouhChaia will hold a presentation in which she looks back and looks ahead. She
will also reveal some of the new plans of the gallery. Everyone is invited to
join this presentation and encouraged to participate in the discussion.







