Veteran artist and art critic Charles Zuill is strengthening ties across the Atlantic with a show of his work at a gallery in the Azores.Dr Zuill’s art show will open at the Caloura Cultural Centre in Caloura, Sao Miguel on June 25.“Most of the work I will show will be new,” said Dr Zuill, who is hoping residents write San Miguel into their travel itinerary this summer. “I have been working on it over the last few months. Because of the logistics of transporting things from here to there, most of the paintings are quite small. Most of the work is small enough to put into my suitcase. Most of my work tends to the abstract, although I don’t like that term.”One of the founding members of the Bermuda National Gallery (BNG), Dr Zuill was instrumental in establishing contact between the Azores and Bermuda 14 years ago. That paved the way for the gallery’s Window on the Azores exhibit.“In 1997 I met lots of people over there, and made friends,” he said. “They wanted me to come back and do something. But with one thing and another we didn’t find the time. I wanted to do it, but finding the time was another matter.”He returned to the Azores last summer with a friend of Portuguese heritage. The friend was nervous because he didn’t speak any Portuguese, and didn’t know much about the Azores.“He didn’t know what to expect,” said Dr Zuill. “He thought maybe the Azores were just islands with farmers. The Azores islands are very sunny and I love going there. They are gorgeous islands. There are farmers there, but it is also sophisticated. For example, the Carlos Machado art gallery was started in 1870. They also have a very large theatre in Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel. The Carlos Machado is the main art museum, but there are others on various islands. It is expanding, and is now in three different buildings. As we speak, they are building a multimillion dollar architecturally significant cultural museum on the outskirts of Ponta Delgada. Art wise, they are flourishing.”During this recent trip, he reconnected with some friends in the Portuguese art world he had met during his first visit. After chatting, he was invited to have an exhibition at the Caloura Cultural Centre.“I thought it was a unique opportunity,” he said. “I am all for fostering these relationships. We are both islands in the Atlantic Ocean.”He said that when he went to major art museums in the United States they included art from various places including Asia and Africa and oceanic islands, but rarely was art arranged along an Atlantic theme.“Nobody ever thinks about Atlantic Art,” he said. “They tend to dismiss it as ‘colonial’. American art is colonial to a high degree also. Some people have jokingly described American art as being ‘the art of greater Europe’. At any rate, I have been trying to foster these relationships.”Dr Zuill said it is his wish that the BNG concentrate on Atlantic art, because historically Bermuda has been a crossroads in the Atlantic. Ships coming and going to and from Europe went past Bermuda and would often stop in for repairs, refuelling or trade. They were driven to Bermuda by tradewinds that Dr Zuill said come just to the south of the island.“Bermudians went all over the place,” he said. “We went from Newfoundland, Canada to South America. We went across to Europe. We have all these historic links, so if I can use my art to foster relationships with these various areas, I will. As far as I know, there is not a comprehensive art collection of Caribbean art anywhere. Even in the Caribbean, the various islands tend to focus on their own island. The National Gallery of Jamaica, for example, tends to focus on Jamaican art.”Dr Zuill is currently exhibiting in the Desmond Fountain Gallery.Useful website: www.cccaloura.com/.