Trinidad and Tobago-born artist Alicia Aberdeen exhibits at Gracie Mansion

Being able to exhibit a piece of artwork at Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of New York, is a dream for many artists – one that was realised for TT-born artist and founder of Alicia Aberdeen Art, Alicia Aberdeen-Jones.

Aberdeen-Jones was one of six artists who exhibited at the Gracie Mansion Conservancy (GMC) art installation last month.

Gracie Mansion is one of the oldest surviving wooden structures in Manhattan and is part of The Historic House Trust. The GMC is a private, not-for-profit corporation that was established in 1981 to preserve, maintain and enhance the historic structure and its surrounding landscape and gardens. It also acquires furnishings that tell the stories of the rich cultural history of New York, and provides educational services such as publications and tours.

Aberdeen-Jones and over 70 other artists answered the open call to exhibit, and she told WMN, “I was one of six artists selected for the first official ‘public’ art exhibit and tour. The show featured an international cast of artists spanning varying disciplines within the fine and media arts genres.”

The exhibit ran for the month of May.

Her two pieces, The Re-emergence and I am WOMAN – Omnipotent; Omnipresent ENERGY, delved into the Transformation and Rebirth theme of the exhibit.

“The pieces were supposed to reflect a time or experience in our lives that brought some kind of transformation.”

The Re-emergence, she said, was shown at a Women In Art event hosted by the Delta Theta Sigma Sorority Nassau County Chapter in 2014.

“It was swiftly picked up by one of the sorors, so I never got to show it again. The original was done in oils on canvas and employed an all-palette knife technique.”

But because she keeps copies of all her artwork, she was able to submit a giclee reproduction to the GMC. Giclee is a fine art print created by using a specialised high resolution inkjet printer.

“It is the most intimate reproduction you can get because of the details in the scan. And even then I am able to go in and retouch the canvass.”

She described the piece as a representative of a “new me.”

“The internal latent energy becoming kinetic, hence the texture in the piece.”

She said it was an attempt to show what she was feeling at that point in time in her life.

“I had a three-year old baby girl, was halfway through a media arts degree and was, for the first time in my life, totally dependent upon another human being – my husband. It was a scary time but one filled with exhilaration and curiosity as to where this road that I was finally about to take would lead me.”

Having left her corporate life to explore her creative side, Aberdeen-Jones said it was like leaping into freedom.

“It was like looking into the light from a dark space…Uncertain, kinda scary.”

I am WOMAN, she said, is part of her I SEE You 2024 series that focuses on the other side of the gender issue, with an emphasis on the cis female – someone who was assigned female at birth and identifies as a woman.

“With our intense propensity to love and embrace we can sometimes run the risk of self-deprivation; some have expressed feelings of the female becoming side-lined…I am attempting to look at the female from a standpoint of energy and what that energy means and where it spans and whom it impacts – worldly and celestially.”

She said the piece reflects details on gender- and LGBTQ-related issues and the research gave her an opportunity to self-educate.

But this exhibit was not the genesis of Aberdeen-Jones’ relationship with art and the GMC.

Last year TT-American businesswoman Hazra Ali had asked her to do a portrait of New York mayor Eric Adams for Caribbean-American Heritage Month.

“I told myself, ‘it’s the mayor,’ so I did one of my specialities in oil and real gold – 100 per cent Italian, 24 carat gold. The entire head and the five stars are layered several times with the gold.”

Then, Aberdeen-Jones said, “Mayor Adams hosted a cultural event commemorating Caribbean-American heritage at the mansion and I was one of the artists invited to showcase during an event attended by thousands. I showed the portrait and two other pieces…I did a public presentation of the portrait to the mayor and then it was returned to me…That is how I was introduced to the Gracie Mansion.”

After the event, she said, both GMC executive director Rhonda Binda and director of Public Engagement Chioma Ohakam continued showing support for her creativity.

“They even attended my last showcase, Paintings in the Garden V event, in November last year.”

The GMC has been consistently working to collaborate with artists, and issued an open call in December 2023 to publicly invite artists to submit for a rare opportunity to showcase in the official mayoral residence.

“When I saw the call, I applied and submitted Re-emergence. I didn’t realise I had got in because I was in Barbados,” helping take care of her sick mother.

“When I got back to New York, I got all these messages and realised I had almost missed it.”

She said the tour of the mansion felt like a pilgrimage that allowed artists and visitors to experience the sanctity of the pieces on display.

“We started from the foyer and worked our way through the mansion, getting a detailed tour. The artist whose work was hanging in the room we were touring at the time was given the floor to speak. By the end of it was like we knew each other. And when we got to the ballroom, where a Q&A was supposed to take place, there was no need to sit down for it. The Transformation and Rebirth artist tour and talk was so well executed that the GMC will be adopting the same concept for future artists showcasing at Gracie Mansion.”

Aberdeen-Jones was able to bring her daughter and her daughter’s friend to the exhibit, which added more value to the whole experience for her.

“This will undoubtedly leave a lasting impressions on them. An exhibit like this is something every artist dreams of, and all the hard work I do came to fruition with it. And being able to set an example for them made it clear to me why I am so passionate about what I do.”