JAMAICA POP
Jamaica Pop explores the spectacle of fame in Jamaica’s entertainment industry, a fast-moving, controversy-charged arena where performers are made and unmade in full public view. The series draws on the visual language of vintage comic books, hand-painted street signs and dancehall party posters to capture the volatile mix of humour, rivalry and theatricality that fuels Jamaican pop culture.
These sources are more than stylistic cues: pulp illustration carries the serial drama of mass appeal, while street-poster design embodies immediacy and local authorship. Blended together, they create images that feel hyper-local yet globally legible, mirroring how Jamaican culture circulates restlessly between yard and foreign.
The works oscillate between celebration and critique. They spotlight figures whose presence has reshaped the cultural landscape — from Lady Saw’s fearless dismantling of conservative hypocrisy, to the viral rise and public collapse of Gully Bop, to the enduring influence of Popcaan. Fame here is performance and survival, desire and self-definition, always at risk of being consumed by the machine that created it.
Through bold colour and layered composition, Jamaica Pop turns the energy of the stage into a painted arena, asking what it takes to hold the spotlight, and what is left when it fades.
Lawdamercy, Acrylic on Sommerset Cotton Rag, 50cm x 70cm
Sweet Kulcha, Acrylic on Somerset Cotton Rag, 50cm x 70cm
Unruly Youth, Acrylic on Paper, 70cm x 50cm, by Robin Clare
Controversy, Acrylic on Paper, 70cm x 50cm
Media Masters, Acrylic & Gold Leaf on Paper, 56.5cm x 38cm