The Tribune

Popopstudios International Center for Visual Arts will host a reception for the opening of Tyler Johnston’s show on April 18, Tropical Alchemy, including a special performance by Bahama Woodstarr.

Tropical Alchemy focuses on three inter-related bodies of work: Maps of Inheritance, Power Objects and Transmutational Icons.

Johnston has painted and assembled simple objects that he has found, allowing them to be transformed into something complex and simple simultaneously. Rich in texture and color, the work is meant to emanate a very potent and visceral energy, which is also reflected in the performance piece.

The Bahama Woodstarr performance is a dance/theatre piece in the form of a ceremonial blessing by Bahama Woodstarr and several dancers. Woodstarr, a Bahamian Shaman known for bringing good luck, “is the lovechild of a pirate and a mermaid”.

Though he has exhibited internationally and throughout the Bahamas, this is Johnston’s first solo exhibition in Nassau. Tyler Johnston, the grandson of the late Randolph Wardell Johnston, has worked extensively with his family’s traditional Bronze casting studio – the only one in The Bahamas. His current body of work represents a departure from the traditional sculptural history of his lineage.

“Tropical Alchemy is a very modern, very Bahamian and very personal series of work.”

Based at Popopstudios since the fall of 2012, Johnston has worked with fellow artist John Cox on a series of murals for the Baha Mar resort, holds regular dance, theatre and martial arts workshops, and recently acted in the television drama “Mystery In Paradise” shot this Winter in Nassau.

Johnston, also an award winning filmmaker, started the Bahamas Institute for Motion Pictures, which holds the monthly social networking event called Creative Connect with the Bahamas Film Makers and Actors Guild. Johnston studied Filmmaking and Theatre at Maine Media workshops and the University of Southern Maine. He holds a BFA from the Maine College of Art and studied Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.