Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Young artist creates own space to showcase his talent

Published:Friday | January 7, 2022 | 12:05 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Richard Nattoo.
Richard Nattoo.
Richard Nattoo’s visual arts photos.
Richard Nattoo’s visual arts photos.
One of Richard Nattoo’s masterpieces.
One of Richard Nattoo’s masterpieces.
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Richard Nattoo, 28, a visual artist native to Spanish Town, St Catherine, has always been fascinated by different textures, colours, and a variety of other artistic and creative techniques throughout his youth.

“It’s always been there,” he said of his artistic interests, which were noticed by his mother who saw him drawing a peacock at a young age and gave him a box of crayons to colourise and bring his work to life.

It is this fascination that allowed him to find a space where he could ‘escape to’ when heavily burdened with school and his pursuance of an architecture degree at the University of Technology, Jamaica.

Instead of studying for a visual arts degree, Nattoo chose to keep this interest as only a hobby, as he wanted to separate the thing that brought him peace from becoming stressful, as school was at the time.

“It was always important to me to maintain my zeal for art no matter what I was doing – it was always my getaway,” he exclaimed, adding that even while he was under severe pressure in university, he would still put aside time to exhibit every June at the Kingston on the Edge urban art festival.

“I knew this was what I really wanted to do, so it was important for me to act accordingly,” he said, as he had been displaying his art at various exhibitions at the National Gallery of Jamaica since 2012.

However, despite the fact that Nattoo began working for a prominent architecture firm almost five years after graduating in 2016, he was never truly satisfied or fulfilled with the job.

As such, in January 2021, during the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nattoo decided it was time to make a switch in his career path and become a full-time artist, devoting himself to art which he had been in love with for a number of years.

“I have not regretted that move [since],” he said.

Though it was a high risk for Nattoo to venture out on his own, he explained that he spent many hours each day applying to different exhibitions while networking with curators on the international scene who might be interested in his work.

But, much to his surprise, it proved to be more difficult than he had anticipated.

“What struck me was how hard it was to get in with these people. I would reach out to around 10 people each day who I think would be interested in my work, but while I had a few conversations with these people, nothing came of it,” he told The Gleaner.

Nonetheless, with an unrelenting spirit, Nattoo decided to create a space of his own where he could not be denied the opportunity to exhibit his talent.

“I decided that instead of trying to figuratively get into their ‘house’, I would build my own house here in Jamaica, and that’s where the idea for TETRAHEDRON was born,” he said.

In November of 2021, Nattoo took on the monumental challenge of running three solo exhibitions simultaneously without the help of any sponsors, something that has never been seen done before by any other Jamaican artist.

THREE-DAY EXHIBITION

The three-day, overall exhibition, titled ‘TETRAHEDRON,’ was divided into three sections: ‘EXISTENTIAL’, which discussed the internal turmoils that make us human, ‘SALVATION II – THE BEAUTIFUL DEPRESSION’, which explored finding the light to get out of a dark place, and ‘WHEN MY FATHER TOOK US FISHING’, which detailed his journey into the discovery of his love for the ocean and its inhabitants.’

He created s exhibited in total just under 100 art pieces where some 20-plus pieces were sold, some of which came as a collection of three smaller works.

“I think overall I did pretty well,” he exclaimed, adding that he would have made profit from the money that he had invested in putting on the art shows.

“Together we raised the bar on exhibition marketing in Jamaica and showed the local art scene what was possible for artists,” he said of himself and the team of persons who assisted in making the shows a success.

As a tetrahedron is a four-sided dimensional shape made up of triangles, Nattoo explained that this dynamic shape represents the dynamism that all humans possess. As a result, he wished to commemorate this and demonstrate to other artists that it is possible to explore all aspects of themselves in order to tell stories.

“Overall, I wanted to tell a story of how possible it is to be a full-time artist in Jamaica. I wanted to be that case study to show that ‘hey look, this guy left his job in January and by November he is doing three shows completely out of pocket, serving free wine at the shows and all!’ I wanted to inspire anyone who feels as if they are suppressing their dreams that it’s possible to live their own passion and do things that they have never seen anyone else do,” said Nattoo.

As a result, Nattoo intends to expand the ‘TETRAHEDRON’ brand in 2022 by transforming it into an art festival that will feature as many different artists as possible who are in need of a platform to help showcase their art.

He encourages other young artists to approach their careers as if they were at a nine-to-five job, putting in as much dedication and hard work as possible, even if no rewards have yet been presented.

Most important, Nattoo warns artists that in order to survive in the art community, they must continue to produce work and build connections while understanding that nothing is owed to them.

“Just because you see other artists that you think have lesser quality work than you doing better, don’t get upset about that ... just continue doing the work,” he said.