Deborah Jack

Deborah Jack is a Caribbean artist from St. Martin. Not only in terms of geography but also in terms of cultural/ spiritual location. She has been a professional artist since 1996. The focus of her practice is on constructing a personal/ cultural history based on ancestral or re-memory using painting, video, photography, sound art and poetry.

In 1995 she represented the Netherlands Antilles at the Caribbean Festival of Creative Arts (CARIFESTA) VI in Trinidad and Tobago in the area of Visual Arts and drama. In 2000 she represented St. Martin at CARIFESTA VII in the area of literary arts where she was once of the featured readers. In 1997 Deborah together with several cultural activities created AXUM art café. This venue became the nurturing ground and gathering place for the islands avant-garde musicians, poet, dancers, visual artists and intellectuals.

"The Rainy Season" is Deborah’s first published volume of pomes. Her work has been published in the literary journals. The Caribbean Writer, Calabash, and various Caribbean regional newspapers. She has read her work at the Studio Museum of Harlem as well as an invited author at the Miami Book fair International. She was a fellow the Caribbean Writers Institute at the University of Miami, a recipient of grants from the Prince Bernard Culture Fund (1996 and 2004) and OKSNA (Social Cultural Organization of the Netherlands Antilles).

Deborah Jack completed her MFA at the University at Buffalo, in 2002, where she received several grants and fellowships, including the SUNY College of Arts and Science Dissertation Fellowship and was a 2002 Fellow of photography Institute National Graduate Seminar.

In 2003 she was a Light work, Artist-in-Residence at Syracuse University, and won the CEPA Exhibition Award in Buffalo, New York. Her work has been exhibited and screened in solo and group shows in St. Martin, Tallahassee, Ukraine, Trinidad and Tobago, Germany, Finland, Buffalo, Rochester, Mexico and Cuba.

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