"Football Boyz" by Jacqueline Gopie

A new exhibition at the University of Miami’s College of Arts and Sciences Gallery will feature the works of a Jamaican-born artist whose paintings explore issues of memory, identity, and class struggle in postcolonial Caribbean culture.

“Full Circle,” Jacqueline Gopie’s Master of Fine Arts solo exhibition, will be on view at the gallery from June 5-22. An opening reception for the artist is scheduled for Friday, June 15 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the gallery, which is located at 1210 Stanford Drive on the Coral Gables campus.

Combining childhood recollections with experiences from a recent trip to Jamaica, Gopie focuses primarily on children in her paintings, portraying images of play, rather than the abject poverty and violence that permeate the ghettos of Kingston.

Gopie was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1960, and immigrated with her family to Brooklyn, New York, in 1972. After a 22-year career in the U.S. Army, she attended the University of Miami, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005. She returned to UM for graduate studies in 2009.