When Graham Foster's solo exhibition opens at the ACE Gallery on Friday, it will mark the first time a Bermudian artist has been accorded the honour, and director of exhibitions Julie Sylvester explains why.

“Graham is clearly one of the foremost Bermudian artists,” she says. “He has accomplished quite a body of work at this point in his career as a painter and sculptor.

“By isolating a group of selected works not seen before in a solo exhibition, the intention is to show how Graham's work has evolved.”

Known for staging exhibitions of internationally recognised artists, Ms Sylvester said choosing Mr. Foster reflects the ACE Gallery's desire to support talented local artists and see them develop.

“It is important to put the work of an artist such as Graham in the context of the other exhibitions by internationally known artists who have shown at the ACE gallery,” she says. “By placing Graham's work in a line-up which includes Louise Bourgeois, Jennifer Bartlett, Anne Chu and Kent Iwemyr, a situation is created which is new for Graham, and one which may have him present his work in a new light for the Bermuda and international audience. The works chosen for this exhibition will certainly surprise us.

“It is the mandate of the ACE Gallery to bring contemporary art of international stature to Bermuda.

“How lovely if it is found right on our doorstep!”

It is not, however, the first time ACE and Mr. Foster have worked together.

“We are proud to have been involved with one of the first major commissions of Graham's talent in 1992 when he painted ‘Marine Fantasy' which still hangs in the atrium of the ACE Tempest Re building at 30 Wodbourne Avenue,” Ms Sylvester says. “We are thrilled to be working with Graham again, and look forward to welcoming visitors to the ACE Gallery in its global headquarters building at 17 Woodbourne Avenue to see his latest creations.”

For his part, Mr. Foster has spent months preparing for his first solo exhibition in six years, and says: “There will be around ten sculptures and ten paintings, most of which are influenced by African and Oceanic tribal art. Their expressive power and originality, particularly in the figurative pieces, have been an ongoing inspiration in my work.”

The new sculptures are made of welded steel rod and sheeting, and this time around the artist has experimented with blacksmithing and armour-making techniques which he says “have allowed for more complex shapes to be made via hammering and heating”.

Central to the show will be a series of votive heads influenced by the masks of black Africa, and particularly those made by the Ekoi, Lega and Kwele tribes.

“These are an evolution and refinement of an earlier set of steel sculptures called ‘21st Century Fetish Family',” Mr. Foster says. “These tribal heads have various 21st century additions, such as lugnuts and chains to give them a quasi-industrial look.”

The artist took his inspiration from wondering what the African tribes in question would have created had they had iron-working capabilities to make their idol fetishes - “rather like pieces made in a post-apocalyptic world where new tribes and religions would form, creating their votive pieces from the debris of a previous civilisation”.

For this reason, Mr. Foster wanted the heads to have a weathered look, as if they had been used in some ceremony, and says that all of the sculptures have been made from scratch using steel rod and sheeting which has been hammered and welded into place.

As for his paintings, these are mainly large, with some depicting a series of mask-like faces which the artist explains represent “multiple personalities conveyed by different-shaped heads and eyeholes”.

“These paintings were also influential in the design of some of the sculptures. Others have an underwater theme depicting fish and figures, some of which are realistic while others are more abstracted,” Mr. Foster says.

Following a private reception on Friday, ‘Graham Foster at ACE' opens to the public on Monday, February 16 and will continue through mid-May. For gallery hours see the Bermuda Calendar.