Suffolk County Community College celebrates Black History Month with an exhibit of paintings by Rani Carson.

One Under the Sun will be exhibited at the Eastern Campus of Suffolk County Community College from January 28 through March 2, 2019 at the Lyceum Gallery. A reception will be held on Wednesday, February 27 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.  Refreshments will be served.
 
Rani Carson paints spiritual friends and experiences from within the Jamaican Rastafarian culture.  Traveling between her studio in Oracabessa, Jamaica and Riverhead, NY, Carson has created an intimate body of genre paintings.  On view are tender moments of mothers with children, husbands and wives, archetypical man, archetypal woman, along with a monumental 7.5 ft. high x 11 ft., multi-panel mural of a celebratory gathering of Rastafari brethren and sistren. 

 “What I have always felt in Jamaica is a closeness to spirit…. when I paint Rasta, I feel I am painting people who are taking a serious stand for truth, for righteousness, for justice, and for culture against colonialism,”  said Carson
 
Seeing Carson’s delicate marks, lovingly rendered with casein paint, the viewer will delight in the artist’s ability to portray the life and spirit of her subjects.  Carson’s mark making is inspired by Van Gogh’s drawing technique, while her use of color and deep interest in spiritualism show her affinity to Gauguin.
                                                                                                         
After earning a B.A. in English Literature from Barnard College, Columbia University in 1962, Carson travelled throughout Europe viewing paintings. Carson returned to the United States and studied painting at Brooklyn College where she earned an M.F.A.  Carson taught as an art professor at Suffolk County Community College’s Michael J. Grant Campus from 1974 – 2010 while also serving as curator for the Grant Campus art gallery.  Carson also taught at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica.  Carson has exhibited her work in solo exhibits at the First Street Gallery and later at the Prince St. Gallery in New York City and at galleries on Long Island, Pennsylvania, and California. Carson’s work has been included in numerous group shows nationally and internationally including many of the annual and biennial exhibits at the National Gallery of Jamaica in Kingston since 1999, and also in the 2001 exhibit, “A Shriek from an Invisible Box” at the Meguro Museum of Art, in Tokyo, Japan.   Carson’s work has appeared in a number of publications including American Artist, Winter/Watercolor edition, NYC, 2003.
 
Rani Carson’s website is at www.rastafari-inspiration.com.         

Gallery hours:
Monday -Thursday 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Friday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Saturday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
 
The Lyceum Gallery is closed on Sundays and on Presidents Day, Feb. 2, 2019.
Call 631-524-2436 for more information.