A review of Bernard Stanley Hoyes solo exhibition - The Mating Dance of Hummingbirds

A review of Bernard Stanley Hoyes solo exhibition - The Mating Dance of Hummingbirds

By Priska Wenander for Expérience Jamaïque

September 5, 2025

During September 2025 EJ Gallery staged an online exhibition of artworks by the well-known Jamaican artist Bernard Stanley Hoyes.  Titled Mating Dance of Hummingbirds, the series of artworks on paper is the outcome of a sculpture Hoyes made under the same title that was commissioned by the Government of Jamaica. The hummingbird is one of Jamaica’s national symbols. The exhibition can be seen at this LINK

The artworks are well presented in the online gallery although one could question having the three more “ethnical” themed ones (Mating Dance on Syncona, Mating Dance Roots and Rags and Mating Dance of hummingbirds in petrified cholla) hanging on the same wall as one of the Mating Dance Steel paintings. 

In some paintings, the artist uses a lot of colours, especially complementary ones that intensify each other and create contrast. It also augments the effect of vibrating light where a lot of them are used. The artworks of the Gold and Silver Hummingbirds bring to mind orphism in painting (Delaunay’s Rhythm paintings), as well as the vibration of light sought in impressionism and pointillism (Monet, Van Gogh, Pissaro, Seurat, Cézanne and others). Clearly one can see the vibrations in them.

In other paintings, contrast is created by the black sharp edged silhouette birds cut out on a red and orange colour gradient background, calling to mind the soft light of island sunrise or sundown. Sometimes, the hummingbirds are  bodies are clearly outlined against a blurred background and have got very strong geometrically cut out feathers, which give a sense of vibration. If you observe  a flying hummingbird in reality, you realize that as it seemingly stops to feed on flower nectar, you can only clearly see its body whereas its frenetically flapping wings become a blur as depicted in these paintings.  Though every now and then, they make movements in which you will distinguish individual feathers and a multitude of colours (also clearly painted on some of the artworks). The non-realistic depiction becomes very realistic when you think twice!

The motifs in Mating Dance on Syncona are very similar to patterns on Peruvian cloth.  Was the intention to suggests hummingbirds dancing in morning or evening light in Peru? Or was the artist simply exploring shapes and colours best reflecting morning or evening light on the birds’ feathers, however much the cactus in the background support the idea of the scene taking place in an  arid South American landscape? Mating Dance of hummingbirds in petrified cholla is equally compelling in its shapes and colours (as is Mating Dance Roots and Rags) leading the viewer to question the mystery in them.