Scores of art devotees, collectors, teachers and the artists themselves indulged their passion for artistic expression by assembling for the pre-noon official opening of the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ)’s 2010 National Biennial, Sunday last.

The visually arresting exhibition features some 84 talented artists. Their work — mounted on pedestals, adorning walls, strategically decorating the floors and gracing television screens — run a gamut of interesting moods and styles. From contemporary, provocative imagery to retro-influences and tried-and-true classicism, variety is without question the name of the game for the Biennial. The expansive collection includes paintings, sculptures, ceramics, collages, assemblages, photographs, installations and video.

Brief formal proceedings launched the start of the 11:00 am function, with attendees congregated on both floors of the split-level gallery. Succinct speeches toasting the varied, beautiful talents being exhibited came from the Gallery’s Chairman Wayne Chen, Chief Curator David Boxer, Executive Director Veerle Poupeye and guest speaker, TVJ’s General Manager Kay Osbourne. Resounding applause ensued, then art aficionados and buyers the like of Wallace Campbell and Guy McIntosh rubbed shoulders with the artists (including sartorial standout Ebony G Patterson looking fashionably edgy in a boho-rocker ensemble). The hum of early-afternoon activity saw persons milling about, catching up with familiar faces they hadn’t seen in some time (we overheard Tina Spiro assuring old friends she’d been back on the Rock for two years when asked how long she’d been here); while others keenly scrutinised the work on show as heads tilted or fingers prodded chins in deep, contemplative thought of the art before their eyes.

Patterson’s mixed media installation, Christ + Co (Gonzales Christ Revised and Extended), a continuation of her series on dancehall culture, elicited strong reaction from those viewing. Its chapel-like set references the recent State of Emergency and portrays extradited don-man Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke as a Christ-like being on the cross flanked by two thieves at his side. Also making visceral impact were Michael ‘Flyn’ Elliott’s Donopoly (Episode 1), an inspired take on the Parker Brothers board game that recasts the properties with inner-city names like Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town while using toy soldiers as player pieces; Raymond Watson’s Rhythm, a three-piece stone resin steel sculpture work that features and evokes the throes of musical passion; and Hope Brooks’s Justice Denied/ Confessions of a Policeman, a two-part artistic rendering done with newsprint and vivid splashes of red, clearly alluding to bloodshed. Brooks’s piece is based on two stories written by Jamaica Observer reporters Alicia Dunkley and Paul Henry about the late justice crusader Millicent Forbes, mother of Janice Allen who was killed under questionable circumstances by the Jamaican police.

Of her peers on display, Laura Facey-Cooper’s stark but stunning Plumb Line, a mixed media installation consisting of large wooden objects, a plumb and needles, emerged atop the field and was adjudged the winner for the Biennial’s 2010 Aaron Matalon Award. The award is granted to the artist whopresented the most outstanding work or group of works in the opinion of the Exhibition and Acquisition committees of the NGJ.