The vibrant and dynamic world of contemporary Caribbean art mirrors the rich tapestry of cultures, histories and identities that define the region. At the heart of the genre lies a deep connection to the land and its people.
The artists in Caribbean Contemporary: Rhythms from the Edge find inspiration in the land and communities that sustain them, infusing their works with a sense of place and belonging. As a whole, they celebrate the resilience and spirit of the Caribbean diaspora, forging connections across time and space.
The region is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of global warming and, in July 2024, Hurricane Beryl swept through the Eastern Caribbean, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Rising sea levels, increasing temperatures and the intensification of hurricanes pose existential threats to the region’s islands and their inhabitants, exacerbating existing socio-economic challenges and highlighting the need for urgent climate action.
Art has the power to transcend barriers, evoke emotions and inspire change. This exhibition highlights how artists across the Caribbean diaspora have harnessed their talents to explore pressing issues relating to the environment, migration, globalisation, identity, gender and belonging. They also celebrate the resilience of their communities, the natural beauty of their islands and the pulsating rhythms of everyday life, reminding us of what we must take action to preserve.
Artists: A k u z u r u, Alanis Forde, Ancel Daniel, Anna Gibson, Canute Caliste, Carla Armour, David Antonio Cruz, Dawn Nicholls, Deborah Jack, Edouard Duval-Carré, Elio Rodriguez, Elisa Lejuez, Lee-Ann Haslam, Madsen Mompremier, Oliver Benoit, Pauline Marcelle, Pogus Caesar, Rose L. Williams, Sara Moreira, Sonia E. Barrett, Wilfredo Lam
10% of sales proceeds from this exhibition will go towards Hurricane Beryl relief efforts in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Environment & Sustainability
With the Caribbean’s unique ecological diversity and the challenges posed by climate change, artists are increasingly addressing environmental issues in their work.
This section underscores the critical role of art in addressing global warming and unravelling ecosystems. Here, we highlight artworks that reflect on the relationship between humans and the natural world, as well as advocating for environmental justice. By showcasing these works and the ideas they evoke, the exhibition aims to raise awareness, inspire dialogue and mobilise action towards a more sustainable future. It serves as a poignant reminder of the urgent need for collective efforts to combat climate change and protect the Caribbean’s fragile environment.
Canute Caliste’s paintings celebrate the natural beauty of the Caribbean while also capturing the fragility of its ecosystems. His work emphasises the need for environmental stewardship and highlights the devastating effects of hurricanes on traditional Caribbean lifestyles, serving as a call to action and urging viewers to protect their environment.
Canute Caliste
Canute Caliste’s paintings celebrate the natural beauty of the Caribbean while also capturing the fragility of its ecosystems. His work emphasises the need for environmental stewardship and highlights the devastating effects of hurricanes on traditional Caribbean lifestyles, serving as a call to action and urging viewers to protect their environment.
“Carriacou has many examples of the presence of water spirits or mermaids. Carriacou’s mermaids seem related to Mami Water, the ubiquitous water goddess in West Africa. When we look at Carriacou’s mermaid – her under-ocean travels, her ability to control weather, her arbitration of luck or fate – we see attributes identical with those possessed by Mami Water.
In Carriacou, the mermaid is usually in the lagoon where he first spotted her. Her hands may be either in a waving position, at her side, or carrying a cross. In one painting there are three mermaids. In the middle 1970s, he began writing captions at the bottom of the painting, which reveal his ideas about the mermaid’s attributes: ‘the Queen of Peace’, ‘The Maide going out for a view’, ‘The Maid having fun in the lake’, ‘The Mermaid resting in her gardain’, ‘Framed Mermaid cry out for peace and joy to the world’, ‘Studying the days in the year – peace and love to the whold’, ‘The Mermaid said on earth peace bee on to the siner on earth’, and ‘the Mermaid in the lake restin praying for sinner on euth.'”
– Donald R. Hill, ‘A Carriacouan View of the African Diaspora: “African” Themes in the Paintings of Canute Caliste’ (2005)
Canute Caliste
Canute Caliste
The Mermaid Resting in her Garden
c. 1990s
Canute Caliste
Big Drum Dance in Carriacou
1988
29 x 34 cm
Private collection
Canute Caliste
Getting Ready to Launch in Carriacou
1991
41 x 38 cm
Private collection
Canute Caliste
White Island in Carriacou
1991
36 x 48 cm
Private collection
Canute Caliste (1914–2005, Carriacou) was a self-taught artist who depicted scenes real and imagined, drawing on the rhythms and traditions of daily life on the island: fishing expeditions, cricket matches, the Big Drum Dance and the Grenada Revolution of 1979. He first began painting as a child, claiming to have been inspired by a vision of a mermaid, and this remained a recurring motif throughout his work. Executed on boards and other found surfaces, his paintings often include titles describing the vignettes depicted. The artist was also a boat builder and fisherman, in addition to being an accomplished fiddler player. His work was recently included in the major travelling exhibition Afro-Atlantic Histories at the Museu de Arte de Sāo Paulo; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Dallas Museum of Art (2018–24).
Deborah Jack’s multimedia installations explore the themes of memory and environmental change. Her work often includes elements of the sea, symbolising both beauty and destruction. Jack’s art underscores the urgency of addressing climate change to protect the Caribbean’s coastal communities.
Deborah Jack
Deborah Jack’s multimedia installations explore the themes of memory and environmental change. Her work often includes elements of the sea, symbolising both beauty and destruction. Jack’s art underscores the urgency of addressing climate change to protect the Caribbean’s coastal communities.
“I explore the shoreline of the (is)land as a liminal space. The fluidity of the water as it interacts with the shore and the lines that are created by that encounter as well as the temporal quality of those lines. Climate change has caused the warming of the oceans which has led to hurricanes that are more explosive in strength, last longer and storm surges that push further inland. The work engages ongoing questions that serve as a point of departure: Does water have memory? What is the resonance when the water and the land connect? If the hurricane is a natural memorial to the Middle Passage, a haunting. How can we re-imagine altered shorelines during the storm surge? The invasion of salt water beyond the shore. The merging of fresh and salt water bodies and the ecologies in-between that struggle to survive.”
Deborah Jack
Deborah Jack
…the sea is a work song…
2021
110.5 x 73.7 x 5.08 cm
Deborah Jack
…the song the tempest sings, traveled the undercurrents to be heard and…
2021
89 x 58.4 x 5 cm
Deborah Jack
Le Gallion #2, from Intertidal Imaginaries: The Resistant Geographies of the Shore(coast) in the Aftermath of Saltwater(storm surges)
2023
43.2 x 76.2 cm
$4,000
Deborah Jack
the subtle eruptions of salt: the rain, the surge, the tears #1
2024
50.8 x 76.2 cm
$7,500
Deborah Jack
Untitled #4, from Intertidal Imaginaries: The Resistant Geographies of the Shore
2023
101.6 x 152.4 cm
$12,500
Deborah Jack
Untitled #1, from Intertidal Imaginaries: The Resistant Geographies of the Shore
2021
101.6 x 152.4 cm
$12,500
Deborah Jack
Cay Bay #2, from Intertidal Imaginaries: The Resistant Geographies of the Shore(coast) in the Aftermath of Saltwater(storm surges)
2021
101.6 x 152.4 cm
$12,500
Deborah Jack (b. 1970) is a St. Maarten and Jersey City-based multidisciplinary artist, who holds an MFA from the State University of New York at Buffalo (2002). Working across video/sound installation, photography, painting and text, Jack explores the intersections of history, cultural memory, ecology and climate change. Focusing on hurricane storm surges and coastal erosion, she views altered, temporary landscapes as sites of resistance. Jack’s recent solo exhibitions include Intertidal Imaginaries, Houston Center of Photography (2024); the water between us remembers…, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA (2023); sometimes the aftermath is the storm…, Colgate University Museum, Clifford Gallery, Hamilton (2023); and ...wonder at the heartbreak and reassemble the fragments of shattered symmetries, until…, 150 Media Stream, Chicago (2022). Her work is in the collections of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, MCA Chicago, Smith College Museum of Art and Des Moines Art Center.
Elio Rodriguez uses repurposed materials in his dynamic sculptures, critiquing consumerism and waste. His art promotes sustainable practices and highlights the interconnectedness of environmental and social issues. Rodriguez’s work is particularly resonant, as it advocates for resilience and sustainability in rebuilding efforts.
Elio Rodriguez
Elio Rodriguez uses repurposed materials in his dynamic sculptures, critiquing consumerism and waste. His art promotes sustainable practices and highlights the interconnectedness of environmental and social issues. Rodriguez’s work is particularly resonant, as it advocates for resilience and sustainability in rebuilding efforts.
“All my work in a general sense deals with the question of identity, understood as the system of judgements about a person, culture or phenomenon. This question is generally treated from the prism of Caribbean popular culture, using humour and clichés formed about this culture to build images that simultaneously incarnate that reality and question it. The ambivalence of genres is also a topic that is near to me, a game of illusions with the spectator, the doubt in the identity of a concept or an image, the phenomena that pretend to be one thing, but are really something else or both at the same time.
Although my work has a conceptual root, where the idea conditions formal elements, the sensations that emanate from the forms of my works are fundamental to them. I am used to working with different media according to my interests – painting, installations, sculptures, prints, ceramics – but particularly soft sculpture (sewn and stuffed fabrics), a technique that brings me closer to the craftwork of the popular cultures of the Caribbean, incorporating real chosen objects.”
Elio Rodriguez
Elio Rodriguez
Tropicalisima
2007
80 x 100 cm
€1,200
Elio Rodriguez
Jungla Santera
2021
150 x 150 x 30 cm
€18,000
Elio Rodriguez
Jungla Negra
2021
150 x 150 x 30 cm
€18,000
Elio Rodriguez
La Mulata
2001
80 x 100 cm
€1,200
Elio Rodriguez
Tropical Garden #9
2020
60 x 60 x 10 cm
€6,000
Elio Rodriguez (b. 1966, Havana, Cuba) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Spain. His practice encompasses painting, installations, sculptures, prints, ceramics and soft sculpture, often drawing on traditions of Caribbean popular culture and craftwork. Through this ambivalence of genres, he conceives a game of illusions with the viewer using the language of form and surface, ultimately casting doubt on the identity of concepts and images. Rodriguez completed his arts studies at Havana’s Higher Institute of Art (1994) and has been awarded residencies at Hutchins Institute, Harvard University, and Mattress Factory Art Museum. His work is in collections including the National Arts Museum, Cuba; Foundation AMBA, Brazil; Hainaut City Hall, Belgium; Center For Cuban Studies, New York; Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York; and W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at Harvard University.
Rose L. Williams’ detailed paintings of Caribbean flora and fauna celebrate biodiversity and call for its protection. Her art emphasises the importance of preserving natural habitats, which are increasingly threatened by climate change. Williams’ work is a reminder of nature’s resilience and the need for sustainable practices to safeguard the Caribbean’s unique ecosystems.
Rose L. Williams
Rose L. Williams’ detailed paintings of Caribbean flora and fauna celebrate biodiversity and call for its protection. Her art emphasises the importance of preserving natural habitats, which are increasingly threatened by climate change. Williams’ work is a reminder of nature’s resilience and the need for sustainable practices to safeguard the Caribbean’s unique ecosystems.
“The St Ann’s River in Trinidad & Tobago is the water my family is from and in Mama River Water I was inspired by my African grandmothers to celebrate our ancient embodied connection to this tropical paradise. I am inspired by intimate encounters with plants and animals, and identify with their fragility, resilience and evanescence.
Determined to continue creating art after a spinal cord injury, my medium and technique needed to adapt for Like Oil on Water and Floating in the Plastic Gyre. I poured paint on my body and laid down on paper to create a body print. Caught in a whirlpool of sea water, tar and oil from the offshore rigs or a vortex of plastic waste, the body transforms itself into a protective lagoon for its tropical ocean residents. In Floating in the Plastic Gyre, I envisioned how it would feel to be trapped in the ocean’s pollution alongside innocent aquatic creatures. We are not separate, we are one. When you feel trapped in your own body, art made in partnership with nature brings a sense of freedom and grace.
In Barely Hanging On, a woman struggles to make her way through the rough surf of a tropical island suffering erosion from the removal of its protective mangroves. I use the hospital gown as a metaphor for humanity’s unhealthy relationship with the environment and my own personal journey through the challenges of a serious chronic illness, endometriosis.”
Rose L. Williams
Rose L Williams
Mama River Water
2018
61 x 45.7 cm
Rose L Williams
Like Oil on Water
2019
91.5 x 101.6 cm
Rose L Williams
Floating in the Plastic Gyre
2019
124.5 x 137 cm
Rose L Williams
Barely Hanging On
2015
70 x 91.5 cm
Rose L. Williams (b. 1964) is a Canadian visual artist of Trinbagonian heritage who lives and works in Vancouver. She embraces duality and hybridity in her work, examining the intricacies of human-nature connections across photography, painting, printmaking and textiles. The convergences between healing and creativity; habitat conservation and botanical remedies; history, legacy and the transformation of trauma contextualise her art practice. Williams holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Her work has been included in numerous collections and exhibitions, including the 2010 Winter Olympics Cultural Olympiad. In 2023, she participated in the Atlantic World Art Fair, represented by Calabar Art Gallery, New York, followed by the solo exhibition Infinite Wanderings, Loftt Gallery, Port of Spain (2024). Selected group exhibitions include Longing and Belonging, Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, Vancouver (2022); Displacement, The Cultch, Vancouver (2019); and I Shall Be Happy, Pendulum, Vancouver (2015).
Elisa Lejuez’s abstract forms and bold colours reflect the dynamic relationship between humanity and nature. Her transition from themes of memory to environmental sustainability mirrors the region’s urgent shift towards addressing climate change. Lejuez’s art encourages viewers to consider the long-term impacts of their actions on the environment.
Elisa Lejuez
Elisa Lejuez’s abstract forms and bold colours reflect the dynamic relationship between humanity and nature. Her transition from themes of memory to environmental sustainability mirrors the region’s urgent shift towards addressing climate change. Lejuez’s art encourages viewers to consider the long-term impacts of their actions on the environment.
“Our universe, in all its vastness and mystery, has always left markers and indicators of its existence and evolution. When we step back to view the entirety of this interconnected tapestry, we witness a dance of profound significance. Petroglyphs are the artistic expressions of our cosmic curiosity. Corals serve as cosmic timekeepers, bearing witness to celestial events. Fossils tell tales of cosmic cataclysms and evolutionary milestones. And the universe, with its celestial orchestration, is the ultimate canvas upon which this intricate story unfolds.
We, along with our planet’s myriad life forms and their preserved memories, are integral parts of this vast universe. Whether it’s the ancient etchings of human hands, the intricate growth patterns of corals, or the preserved remains of once-thriving organisms, each of these elements tells a story of its own. Together, they evoke a sense of wonder and humility, reminding us of our fleeting yet significant role in the grand cosmic narrative. It’s a reminder that our existence is not isolated but intricately linked to the celestial rhythms that have shaped our planet and continue to shape our understanding of the universe.”
Elisa Lejuez
Elisa Lejuez
Rebirth
2023
100 x 100 cm
$2,250
Elisa Lejuez
Timeless Tales
2023
100 x 100 cm
$2,000
Elisa Lejuez
Everything
2023
78 x 78 cm
$1,750
Elisa Lejuez (b. 1973) is a Dutch-Caribbean artist who lives and works in Aruba. Her artistic sensitivities were expressed from an early age in numerous sketches and drawings, through which she developed her innate understanding of colour and shape. Lejuez’s paintings can be viewed as an “archeology” of layered shapes and patterns that represent her global heritage and humanity’s deep connection to the earth. She graduated from the University of Fine Arts, Arnhem in 1996 and received her MA with a specialism in textile design in 1998. Lejuez has worked as a textile designer for several Dutch companies, which has helped inform her fine art practice. Recent exhibitions include a solo at ArtisA, Aruba (2023) and group presentations at Art Basel Miami (2022) and Pelham Art Center, New York (2019).
A k u z u r u ’s immersive installations explore the spiritual connections between humans and the earth. Her work highlights the cultural and spiritual disruptions caused by environmental degradation and natural disasters. A k u z u r u ’s art invites viewers to reflect on the need for a harmonious relationship with nature.
A k u z u r u
A k u z u r u ’s immersive installations explore the spiritual connections between humans and the earth. Her work highlights the cultural and spiritual disruptions caused by environmental degradation and natural disasters. A k u z u r u ’s art invites viewers to reflect on the need for a harmonious relationship with nature.
“Parthenogenesis is an epic environmental opus which fuses the historical and geophysical matrix of the oceanscape and landscape in an immersive installation. This evokes the deep emotional and spiritual embodiments of epochal cosmic existences through the leitmotif of the whale, oceanic energy and feminine power. Metaphorically, the impossible possibility of parthenogenesis as process and pronouncement of these capabilities in the rebirth of self – a natural rejuvenating process – proposes a challenge to women to look within and acknowledge their own power. Parthenogenesis as a state of higher consciousness – a pronouncement of feminine power – is a process of attaining ascension.
The work is connected to the memory of Bolo, a whale watcher stationed at Bulmer’s Bay, Chaguaramas, who was in fact an enslaved African woman in 18th-century Trinidad. She blew a conch shell to call attention to a sighting of whales at Bolo Rocks, which was named after her. I use this as a metaphor for her gesture, as a call to her ancestors across the open seas to the continent or those who were ‘buried’ at sea. I see her as a powerful woman, a supernatural angel, who projected her existence through each call, blowing the conch shell to also connect to the spiritual energy of the whales once prevalent in these waters in the past. “
A k u z u r u
A k u z u r u
Syncopation
2020–24
241.3 x 180.3 cm
€22,000
A k u z u r u
HIDDEN LANDSCAPES
2024
218.4 x 106.7 cm
€16,000
A k u z u r u
Mama Bois Returns ll
2024
96 x 84 x 64 cm
A k u z u r u (b. Trinidad & Tobago) is a multimedia artist who blends the material with the immaterial, using natural and architectural spaces to create immersive installations and performances. Her multifaceted artistic language includes spatial works, body mappings and experiential art, both live and on film. Central to her process are the natural world and metaphysics, resulting in expansive presentations. A k u z u r u completed her MA Textile Design in Zaria, Nigeria (1997) and BA Fashion in London (1989). Her recent solo exhibitions include Parthenogenesis – a Maze of Silence Within a Roar, Central Bank Museum, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago (2024); Symphonic Syntrophy, The Space Inna Space, Trinidad & Tobago (2023); and lightSILHOUETTES, National Museum & Art Gallery, Trinidad & Tobago. In 2022 her work was featured in the group presentation Des-File: Textures of Liberation, hosted online by Textile Culture Net, for the Centre for Heritage Arts & Textiles, Hong Kong; Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa, Łódź, Poland; Lotto Zero Textile Laboratories, Italy; and Textile Museum of the Netherlands.
Identity & Representation
Artists grapple with questions of identity, particularly in the context of colonial legacies, racial dynamics and migration. This section examines how artists engage with these themes through personal narratives, symbolism and cultural iconography.
The complexities of identity are central to art from the Caribbean. Its melting pot of cultures has been influenced by indigenous peoples, African enslaved people, indentured Indian and Chinese workers, European colonial powers (Spain, France, Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands) and other immigrant groups from Syria and Lebanon. In a world marked by migration and displacement, artists explore themes of hybridity, fragmentation and cultural syncretism. Their works navigate the intricacies of belonging and otherness, reclaiming narratives and redefining what it means to be Caribbean in an ever-changing world.
Alanis Forde’s work explores themes of identity through vivid portraits and introspective scenes that capture the essence of Caribbean life. Her art often focuses on the lived experiences of women, reflecting on personal and collective identities within her own cultural context. Forde’s vibrant use of colour and detailed depictions invite viewers to engage with the narratives of empowerment and resilience that define her subjects.
Alanis Forde
Alanis Forde’s work explores themes of identity through vivid portraits and introspective scenes that capture the essence of Caribbean life. Her art often focuses on the lived experiences of women, reflecting on personal and collective identities within her own cultural context. Forde’s vibrant use of colour and detailed depictions invite viewers to engage with the narratives of empowerment and resilience that define her subjects.
“My work portrays the navigation of life in a post-colonial paradise that questions concepts based on Black female identity in an idealised, exotic, Caribbean space. By portraying myself and my reality, I question the meaning of escapism, as someone who dwells in a place that is a paradise and place of escape for others. My work depicts an ongoing internal conflict between comfort at home and the desire to escape this utopia I exist within. The use of unrefined brushstrokes, dotted textures, patterns and vibrant colours, allow the viewer’s eyes to be in constant motion and transports them into a paradisiacal dystopia. The recurring figures in my work are called proxies characterised by their blue dotted skin and vibrant red lips. They navigate the landscapes documenting, archiving and capturing the essence of what it means to be both trapped and free.”
Alanis Forde
Alanis Forde
Two & A Half
2024
91.4 x 76.2 cm
$6,000
Alanis Forde
Tropical Gaze: Inside Out
2023
91.5 x 61 cm
$5,500
Alanis Forde
The Escape
2023
152.4 x 122 cm
$10,000
Alanis Forde
Prussian
2022
91.5 x 76.2 cm
$5,000
Alanis Forde (b. 1996, Barbados) is a contemporary Barbadian artist who specialises in expressionist-realist portraiture. Primarily employing oil paint and collage, she portrays a vision of paradise to explore concepts of Black female identity within an idealised space centred in the Caribbean. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions including Deja Vu, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery x Sierra Britton Gallery, Los Angeles (2024); COZY: Comfortable in My Skin, Gallery OCA, London (2023); Repose, Gallery 1969, New York (2022); To Each, Her Own, Urban Zen, New York (2022); and At Peace, Gillian Jason Gallery, London (2021). Forde has completed several artist residencies, including Black Curatorial in collaboration with ICF and Block 336 Studio (2023) and the Chautauqua Institution Visual Arts Program, New York (2020).
Ancel Daniel’s art is deeply rooted in the exploration of cultural heritage and identity. Her works often incorporate traditional Caribbean symbols and motifs, blending them with contemporary elements to create a dialogue between the past and present. Daniel challenges viewers to consider how cultural identity is preserved and transformed over time.
Ancel Daniel
Ancel Daniel’s art is deeply rooted in the exploration of cultural heritage and identity. Her works often incorporate traditional Caribbean symbols and motifs, blending them with contemporary elements to create a dialogue between the past and present. Daniel challenges viewers to consider how cultural identity is preserved and transformed over time.
“My work is designed for storytelling, to stimulate conversations and to add humour and contemplation around Caribbean socio-cultural dynamics. The rum shop becomes a space where modernity defies history and people of all tones and nationalities look alike: sleepy and wonky after a few beers and a bowl of souse. They are joined by Peter’s Hall cane cutters, who reappear to congregate by de Snake Pit, to spend their day’s earnings, over a nightcap under the shadow of the moon. If bar stools could talk, they would tell tales from the Caribbean Crip, in the rum shop, as many men in the region become vulnerable and spill the beans; as the Guyanese saying goes, “Mouth Open, Story Jump Out”, especially under the influence of the wine vessel. The wine vessel is an instigator, a mocker, a joy-giver and, at the same time, a joy-killer. The barstool is not a timekeeper, it keeps secrets in time and men in a stupor fall for its charm and company at the Snake Pit, the rum shop at the end of the corner road.”
Ancel Daniel
Ancel Daniel
Tipsy on Stool (Tales from the Rum Shop)
2024
122 x 73.5 cm
£4,180
Ancel Daniel
Friday Night Pudding and Souse!! (Tales from the Rum Shop)
2024
99 x 50 cm
£4,400
Ancel Daniel
Peter’s Hall Cane Cutters
2024
96.52 x 76.2 cm
£3,520
Ancel Daniel is a Guyanese/Barbadian artist who lives and works on the island of Barbados. Her work explores Caribbean cross-cultural pollination, blending European and Asian aesthetics into a uniquely hybrid artistic language. Using red clay, Daniel creates textured forms inspired by folklore, tropical flora, fauna and everyday Caribbean life. These pieces, often embellished with found objects like screws, bottle caps and fabrics, reflect urban and rustic Caribbean culture. Daniel holds an MA in Fine Arts from Chelsea College of Arts, London (2018) and a BA in Fine Arts from Barbados Community College, Saint Michael (2015). Her work has been featured internationally in solo and group exhibitions, including Diffusing Borders in Colour Motion, Gallery of Caribbean Arts, Barbados (2024); The Work of Black Women Artists, Queens Park Art Gallery, Saint Michael, Barbados (2024); A Seat At The Table, Queens Park Art Gallery, St. Michel, Barbados (2023) and The Wild Collective, Omved Gardens, Highgate, London (2022).
Carla Armour’s multidisciplinary approach encompasses painting, sculpture and performance, addressing themes of identity, memory and transformation. Her art reflects a deep connection to her Caribbean roots, while also engaging with global cultural influences. Armour’s work often explores the fluidity of identity, highlighting the ways in which personal and cultural identities are continuously shaped and reshaped by external and internal forces.
Carla Armour
Carla Armour’s multidisciplinary approach encompasses painting, sculpture and performance, addressing themes of identity, memory and transformation. Her art reflects a deep connection to her Caribbean roots, while also engaging with global cultural influences. Armour’s work often explores the fluidity of identity, highlighting the ways in which personal and cultural identities are continuously shaped and reshaped by external and internal forces.
“Generally, my work has always been investigative and meditative, with social commentary thrown in. As an abstract painter, I immerse myself in the material and process. Using found objects for ‘mark-making’, acrylics, oils and mixed media as well as collage, I employ colour theory and symbolism with automatic drawing, exploring the tensions that reveal themselves. Often layering and abstracting the human figure, grids, patterns and symbols, my ‘environmentscapes’ present a restorative space for the viewer. I want my work to have resonance and for others experiencing it to feel intimate, liberated and reflective.”
Carla Armour
Carla Armour
In the Name of Tradition #1
2023
60 x 60 x 4 cm
Carla Armour
In-Between #1
2024
38 x 38 x 3 cm
Carla Armour
In-Between #3
2024
38 x 38 x 3 cm
Carla Armour
In-Between #4
2024
38 x 38 x 3 cm
Carla Armour (b. 1966) is a Dominican artist, currently living and working between Dominica and Brighton. Her multimedia work explores interactive space, colour relationships and ritualistic elements, aiming to evoke emotions like recognition and remembrance. Incorporating West African symbols, Kalinago glyphs and poetry, her abstract works reflect the complex tapestry of life and women’s roles within it. Armour holds a degree from Parsons School of Design, alongside many years’ experience curating group exhibitions across the Caribbean, USA, UK, Europe and Namibia. Notable shows include a solo exhibition at the National Art Gallery of Namibia (2006); High Noon, Iris Dangleben Gallery, Dominica (1996); and Women of the World, a Global Collection of Art, a travelling exhibition with 174 women representing 174 countries (1998). Recent group exhibitions include Creolite’ 1.0, Vetivert Contemporary, Roseau, Dominica (2024); I Have in My Soul, Vetivert Contemporary, Roseau, Dominica (2023); and Caribbean & Diaspora Art, Diaspora Now, 80 St. Nicholas Place, New York (2021). Her work is collected by the National Art Gallery of Namibia and the National Cultural Council, Dominica.
David Antonio Cruz’s art delves into the intersections of race, gender and sexuality, offering a nuanced perspective on Caribbean and diasporic identities. His vibrant and often provocative works challenge traditional representations, inviting viewers to engage with complex narratives of belonging and identity. Cruz’s art serves as a powerful commentary on the diversity and dynamism of Caribbean identity.
David Antonio Cruz
David Antonio Cruz’s art delves into the intersections of race, gender and sexuality, offering a nuanced perspective on Caribbean and diasporic identities. His vibrant and often provocative works challenge traditional representations, inviting viewers to engage with complex narratives of belonging and identity. Cruz’s art serves as a powerful commentary on the diversity and dynamism of Caribbean identity.
“soyouarebackagain,youarehere,andweareherewithyou is an exploration of queer futurity and the radical possibilities of diasporic Latinx identity. Collapsing past and future, combining space-like helmets and technologically-enhanced protective gear with photographic traces of memory, the painting offers a spirit of play, resilience, and survival. The painting is part of Cruz’s chosenfamily series, which explores the nonbiological bonds formed by Queer people and the idea of family structures chosen out of mutual love and support. Drawing from John Singer Sargent’s high society portraits and Francis Bacon’s paintings in warped environments, the sitters are invited to pose in opposition to social norms as a form of resistance, play and queering the act of posing.
The two queer Latinx subjects are the artist (right) and Daniel de Jesus (left), a musician, artist and longtime performance collaborator with Cruz. Reinterpreting classical poses, nestled intimately on a couch, the sitters fold in on each other with draped arms and layered hands, bathed in jewels, wearing helmets that evoke halos and a spirit of cosmic evolution. One sitter holds a picture frame – loosely depicting a child, a life, a moment from the past – that is based on the artist’s memory of a photograph of himself as a child posing in front of banana trees in Puerto Rico. In this utopic vision, the futuristic, adaptive helmets show the capacity to transform and merge into one another, holding space for the sitter’s billowing hair and a shared protected space in which the two can breathe. The laced gloves, the limp wrist and the diabetes patch further serve as gestures of strength and defiance.
With their intense gaze at the viewer, the sitters demand to be seen while powerfully conveying that they see the viewer, too. The tableaus etched onto the upholstery of the left-hand couch pillow – appearing at first as fluid, watery patterns – reveal a Victorian-like image of women dancing, underscoring the painting’s spirit of gender fluidity and play. Each painting in the chosenfamily series depicts the likeness of the artist’s community, and at the same time the portraits strive to capture much more than the physical representation of the figures; they venerate the overall structure of queer relationships, captured through intimate moments of touch, strength, support and celebration.”
David Antonio Cruz
David Antonio Cruz
soyouarebackagain,youarehere,andweareherewithyou
2023
152.4 x 121.9 cm
David Antonio Cruz (b. 1974, Philadelphia) uses painting and performance to explore the visibility and intersectionality of brown, black and queer bodies. Focusing on queer, trans and gender-fluid communities of colour, his recent chosenfamily series explores the nonbiological bonds between people based in mutual support and love. He lives and works in New York, where he is the Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University. Cruz received his BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute and his MFA from Yale University, also attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Cruz’s work was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at ICA Philadelphia (2023), as well as being shown at the Zuckerman Museum of Art (2023); ICA Boston; The Block Museum at Northwestern; DeCordova Sculpture Park; and Museum of the African Diaspora (all 2022); Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. (2021/2014); Ford Foundation, New York; and Brooklyn Museum (both 2019).
Dawn Nicholls’ work captures the essence of Caribbean identity through a focus on everyday life and community. Her art often depicts intimate scenes that reflect the cultural richness and diversity of the Caribbean, incorporating perspectives of diasporic identity and experience.
Dawn Nicholls
Dawn Nicholls’ work captures the essence of Caribbean identity through a focus on everyday life and community. Her art often depicts intimate scenes that reflect the cultural richness and diversity of the Caribbean, incorporating perspectives of diasporic identity and experience.
“I created SAND ON MARIA ISLAND in Barbados, outside my friend’s house, on a busy main road with traffic, buses and many watchful eyes. So within this composition, sand, gravel, dust, sun and soul come together to create SAND ON MARIA ISLAND.
ME BY DAWN (2) is a highly personal work. After 14 traumatic years of being unable to hold a paintbrush, this was an explosive exploration of creative expression that merits a powerful epiphany of my journey.
In SURVIVORS OF PAIN, this personal experience takes on wider significance in paying tribute to the pain and suffering that many women globally are having to live through every day. This expression of solidarity is extended to victims of war, torture and abuse, human trafficking and slavery, or those trapped by circumstance in marriage or prostitution. In contrast to these inhumane acts, there’s a hope for justice and kindness within the communities we create by showing solidarity with other women.”
Dawn Nicholls
Dawn Nicholls
ME BY DAWN (2)
2024
162 x 126 cm
£12,000
Dawn Nicholls
SURVIVORS OF PAIN
2024
121 x 122 cm
£6,500
Dawn Nicholls
SAND ON MARIAS ISLAND
2024
132 x 165 cm
£12,000
Dawn Nicholls is a self-taught, multi-talented artist based in London, with a deep passion for the Caribbean and a commitment to the diasporic community and experience. Born in the UK, she spent her formative years in Ghana and comes from a family of creatives. Her diverse artistic practice spans ceramics, jewellery, set design, theatre design, styling, customising clothing, large-scale Carnival costumes, upholstery, and many other expressive forms. Nicholls’ work reflects her dedication to self-taught artists and her understanding of the Caribbean’s cultural richness. “My gift is from God and my inner self, which has helped me to create art over the past 30-plus years,” she says. Her art is a testament to her commitment to celebrating and uplifting the diasporic community through creativity and expression.
Pogus Caesar’s photography documents the vibrant cultural landscapes of the Caribbean, capturing moments of celebration, struggle and resilience. His work offers a candid and often poignant portrayal of island life, emphasising the importance of cultural heritage and community. Caesar’s photography serves as a visual archive of Caribbean identity, preserving the stories and experiences of its people.
Pogus Caesar
Pogus Caesar’s photography documents the vibrant cultural landscapes of the Caribbean, capturing moments of celebration, struggle and resilience. His work offers a candid and often poignant portrayal of island life, emphasising the importance of cultural heritage and community. Caesar’s photography serves as a visual archive of Caribbean identity, preserving the stories and experiences of its people.
“Caesar’s vast archive of images […] is an important reflection of what Black history is and has been. However long it is since they were taken, whatever the time lapse between shooting and viewing, these images will remain an important historical record both of and from a Black British perspective. One of the best descriptions of Caesar’s role, I think, can be found in the title of another of his series of work, Schwarz Flaneur. Reflecting the figure of the flâneur as described by Walter Benjamin as a wandering urban spectator, an investigator of the culture of the city and its manifestations of capitalism’s alienation, Caesar might indeed be seen as a ‘Black flâneur’. His unassuming approach enables him to capture unguarded moments with a photographic gaze that is analytical but also caring and intimate. Their style and working method differ, but Caesar can be seen alongside photographers like Gordon Parks or Dawoud Bey as he explores the inherent beauty in being ‘unapologetically Black’, and presents us repeatedly with what, thinking about Black photography as long ago as 1861, Frederick Douglass called, ‘the morally true image’.”
– Derek Horton, ‘Time Lapse: Reframing the Photography of Pogus Caesar’, 2021
Pogus Caesar
Pogus Caesar
Twine, Jamaica, West Indies
2008
30.4 x 40.6 cm
Pogus Caesar
The Long Hen, Jamaica, West Indies
2008
30.4 x 40.6 cm
Pogus Caesar
Three Men, One Hearse, Jamaica, West Indies
2008
30.4 x 40.6 cm
Pogus Caesar
Ras Swaby – Mansions of Rastafari, Jamaica, West Indies
2008
30.4 x 40.6 cm
Pogus Caesar
Untitled, Jamaica, West Indies
2008
30.4 x 40.6 cm
Pogus Caesar (b. 1953, St Kitts) is a photographer and conceptual artist based in Birmingham, where he grew up. He has documented prominent figures and historical events, such as the Handsworth Riots in 1985. Caesar often reworks 35mm negatives into new forms, challenging traditional notions of religion, sex, history and identity from a Black British perspective. An important visual record of Black history, Caesar’s photographs are collected by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Portrait Gallery, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Leicester Museum and Art Gallery; and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. In 2004, he established OOM Gallery Archive, which represents his photographic archive worldwide. In 2018 Caesar was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Birmingham City University, where he is also a Visiting Professor.
Wifredo Lam’s iconic works blend Afro-Cuban symbols with elements of modernism, creating a unique visual language that speaks to the complexities of Caribbean identity. His art reflects a deep engagement with his cultural heritage, while also addressing broader themes of hybridity and transformation. Lam’s work remains a seminal influence in Caribbean art, inspiring new generations of artists to explore and redefine their own identities.
Wifredo Lam
Wifredo Lam’s iconic works blend Afro-Cuban symbols with elements of modernism, creating a unique visual language that speaks to the complexities of Caribbean identity. His art reflects a deep engagement with his cultural heritage, while also addressing broader themes of hybridity and transformation. Lam’s work remains a seminal influence in Caribbean art, inspiring new generations of artists to explore and redefine their own identities.
“In The Jungle and in other works I have tried to relocate Black cultural objects in terms of their own landscape and in relation to their own world. […] I decided that my painting would never be the equivalent of the pseudo-Cuban music for nightclubs. I refused to paint cha-cha-cha. I wanted with all my heart to paint the drama of my country, but by thoroughly expressing the Negro spirit, the beauty of the plastic art of the Blacks. In this way I could act as a Trojan horse that would spew forth hallucinating figures with the power to surprise, to disturb the dreams of the exploiters.”
– Wifredo Lam, quoted in Crosscurrents of Modernism, Four Latin American Pioneers, 1992
Wifredo Lam
Wifredo Lam
The Jungle
1943
239.4 x 229.9 cm
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Image: The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence
Wifredo Lam (1902, Sagua la Grande, Cuba – 1982, Paris) was born to a Chinese immigrant father and an Afro-Cuban mother of Spanish descent. He studied at Havana’s School of Fine Art in 1918, before travelling to Spain and then Paris, where he became associated with Surrealists and the avant-garde. During the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, he returned to Cuba, where he synthesised modernist and surrealist aesthetics with Afro-Cuban iconography. His work addresses themes of social injustice, spirituality and rebirth, challenging assumptions about non-European art and reflecting the cultural hybridity of post-colonial Cuba. Lam’s work is widely collected and exhibited, including recent retrospectives at Tate Modern, London (2016); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2016); High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2015); and Centre Pompidou (2015). His work is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum in New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Tate, among others.
Memory & History
The Caribbean is a region where history is palpably present, woven into the fabric of everyday life. From the legacies of colonialism and slavery to the vibrant cultures that have emerged from these histories, memory plays a crucial role in shaping Caribbean identity.
This section explores these themes through the works of art which provide profound insights into the ways in which history is remembered, represented and reinterpreted. It brings together these diverse artistic voices in a rich tapestry of narratives that highlight the enduring impact of history on Caribbean societies. The works invite viewers to reflect on their own connections to the past and to consider the ways in which memory shapes identity and culture.
Anna Gibson’s work delves into personal and collective memories, creating a dialogue between past and present. Her art often incorporates archival materials and historical references, recontextualising them within contemporary frameworks. Through her mixed-media pieces, Gibson invites viewers to reflect on the enduring impact of history on Caribbean societies and the ways in which memories are preserved and transformed over time.
Anna Gibson
Anna Gibson’s work delves into personal and collective memories, creating a dialogue between past and present. Her art often incorporates archival materials and historical references, recontextualising them within contemporary frameworks. Through her mixed-media pieces, Gibson invites viewers to reflect on the enduring impact of history on Caribbean societies and the ways in which memories are preserved and transformed over time.
“My artwork is rooted in exploring women’s bodies and their relationship to our cultural, racialised preferences and social environments. Focusing on insecurities, from both personal and external experiences as well as popular culture, my work explores and exposes the vulnerabilities women have about their differences to each other. Recent works are crafted around the evaluation and comparison stage regarding one’s physical image.
I examine how women seek to mentally and physically mask or morph their bodies, in an obsessive process of evolving, using various ‘beautification’ methods to achieve acceptance socially and internally. My works emphasise these self-inflicted processes of metamorphosis, using harsh and soft combinations of drawing or painting and exaggerated forms of ‘abnormality’. Questioning the constant state of re-evaluation of the ‘self’, I’m creating landscapes driven by internalised experiences, using various nostalgic elements as a form of escape and reprieve from a demanding reality for these altered figures.”
Anna Gibson
Anna Gibson
Festering Fantasy
2022
114.3 x 152.4 cm
Anna Gibson
Festering Fantasy 2
2022
122 x 91.5 cm
$2,400
Anna Gibson
Festering Fantasy 4
2024
122 x 91.5 cm
$2,400
Anna Gibson
Rebirth: Masque V
2021
50.8 cm diameter
$1,200
Anna Gibson (b. 1996) is a Barbadian contemporary artist who explores multiple mediums, crafting images of body manipulation through realism and expressionism. Her artwork centres on the vulnerabilities women have internalised about their own bodies, perceived deviations from a normative female “ideal” and how this can lead to the desire for alterations in search of acceptance within their cultural, racial or social environments. Gibson holds an Associates and Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from Barbados Community College (2017). Her work has been featured in exhibitions including International Women’s Day, Queen’s Park Gallery, Barbados (2024); A Seat at the Table, Queen’s Park Gallery, Barbados (2023); Innerscapes, Artists Alliance Barbados (2021); Young Artist, Barbados Arts Council Art Gallery (2019); and UNNU Art Festival, Barbados Museum & Historical Society (2019).
Edouard Duval-Carrié’s art is a vibrant exploration of Caribbean history and mythology. His intricate paintings and sculptures often depict historical events and figures, blending them with elements of Afro-Caribbean traditions and symbolisms. Duval-Carrié’s work challenges conventional narratives, offering alternative perspectives on the Caribbean’s colonial past and its cultural syncretism. His art serves as a testament to the resilience and creativity of Caribbean people in the face of historical adversity.
Edouard Duval-Carrié
Edouard Duval-Carrié’s art is a vibrant exploration of Caribbean history and mythology. His intricate paintings and sculptures often depict historical events and figures, blending them with elements of Afro-Caribbean traditions and symbolisms. Duval-Carrié’s work challenges conventional narratives, offering alternative perspectives on the Caribbean’s colonial past and its cultural syncretism. His art serves as a testament to the resilience and creativity of Caribbean people in the face of historical adversity.
“At heart, Duval-Carrié is an educator: he challenges the viewer to make meaning of dense iconography derived from Caribbean history, politics, and religion. His mixed media works and installations present migrations and transformations, often human and spiritual. Recently the conceptual layering of Duval-Carrié’s works has been further emphasized in his materials and through consistent attention to translucent and reflective mediums, such as glitter, glass, and resin. The introspective effects of these mediums transform his works into spatial interventions that implicate the viewer in their historicity. At their most fundamental, Duval-Carrié’s works ask the viewer to complicate the Western Canon, to consider how Africa has shaped the Americas, and how the Caribbean has shaped the modern world.”
– Lesley A. Wolff
Edouard Duval-Carrié
Edouard Duval-Carrié
Memory 5
2017
147.3 x 147.3 cm
$25,000
Edouard Duval-Carrié
Les Têtes Gravées #5
2021
70.5 x 54.6 cm
$10,000
Edouard Duval-Carrié
Incendie du Cap Haitien
2020
147.3 x 177.8 cm
$45,000
Edouard Duval-Carrié
Dutty Boukman
2020
91.5 x 91.5 cm
$25,000
Edouard Duval-Carrié
Colored Girls
2023
147.3 x 147.3 cm
$35,000
Edouard Duval-Carrié (b. 1954, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a painter and sculptor who fled the regime of “Papa Doc” Duvalier as a teenager, living in Puerto Rico, New York, Montreal, Paris, and now Miami. This cosmopolitan lifestyle has informed his artistic sensitivity toward the multifaceted identities that form his native Haiti. He draws on iconography from Caribbean history, politics and religion in his mixed media works and installations. Duval-Carrié holds degrees from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1989) and Loyola College, Montreal (1978). In addition to a recent solo at Coral Gables Museum, Florida (2023), his work was in group exhibitions at the Frost Art Museum, Miami (2023); Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2022); and Katzen Arts Center, Washington, D.C. (2022). His work is in international museum collections, including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Pérez Art Museum Miami; Detroit Institute of Arts; Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien, Port-au-Prince; and Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Paris.
Madsen Mompremier’s art is deeply rooted in the history and culture of Haiti. His vibrant paintings often depict scenes of everyday life, infused with historical and spiritual significance. Mompremier’s work reflects the rich cultural heritage of Haiti, highlighting the ways in which history is lived and remembered in the present. Through his art, he emphasises the importance of cultural continuity and the role of memory in preserving identity.
Madsen Mompremier
Madsen Mompremier’s art is deeply rooted in the history and culture of Haiti. His vibrant paintings often depict scenes of everyday life, infused with historical and spiritual significance. Mompremier’s work reflects the rich cultural heritage of Haiti, highlighting the ways in which history is lived and remembered in the present. Through his art, he emphasises the importance of cultural continuity and the role of memory in preserving identity.
“Few moments in the Haitian past are as hallowed as when Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the insurgent leader and future president of Haiti, created the national flag on May 18, 1803. Here the revolutionary hero is stationed before the nurturing Tree of Liberty, surrounded by valiant soldiers and vigilant angels, decisively slicing the white out of the French Tricolor. With divine approval, Catherine Flon, the Haitian Betsy Ross, sews the blue and red sections back together thus fashioning the sacred banner of a newly independent republic.”
– Fowler in Focus: Art and the Unbreakable Spirit of Haiti, 2011
“Dessalines is depicted using his sword to strip the white panel from the French tricolore, which is held at the opposite corner by a seraph. He is encircled by an audience of rebel soldiers in full military regalia, complete with epaulettes and bicorn hats, along with a host of angels, fish and other mystical and metaphysical figures flourishing horns and bicolores. This is a process of simultaneous making and unmaking: of the deconstruction of the colonial order and the creation of a sovereign, anticolonial Haitian state. That there is a ‘production line’ with multiple flags being unmade and remade at the same moment and a ‘blueprint’ for the bicolore at the base of the tree, suggests that the work of revolution is continuous, ongoing and circular.”
– Nicole Wilson, ‘Unmaking the Tricolore’, 2020
Madsen Mompremier
Madsen Mompremier
Dessalines Ripping White from the Flag
1995
77.2 x 91.4 cm
Fowler Museum at UCLA
Photo: Don Cole
Madsen Mompremier (b. 1952, Gonaïves, Haiti) lives and works in Florida. He initially worked as a tailor in Port-au-Prince, before beginning to paint under the tutelage of Haitian painter Gerard Valcin in 1973. His early scenes of daily life later gave way to an abiding interest in depictions of the vodou gods (Iwa) as well as scenes from the Haitian Revolution. His work has been internationally exhibited and is held in the permanent collection of the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. Notable exhibitions of his work include Aquatopia, Nottingham Contemporary (2013); Five Decades of Haitian Painting, University of Texas, Austin (2013); Kafou: Haiti, Art and Vodou, Nottingham Contemporary (2012); and Art and the Unbreakable Spirit of Haiti, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles (2011).
Oliver Benoit’s abstract works are a contemplation of the historical and social dynamics of the Caribbean. His art often explores themes of identity, migration and the legacy of colonialism, using bold colours and dynamic forms to evoke emotional responses. Benoit’s paintings encourage viewers to consider the layered histories of the Caribbean and the ways in which these histories inform contemporary experiences.
Oliver Benoit
Oliver Benoit’s abstract works are a contemplation of the historical and social dynamics of the Caribbean. His art often explores themes of identity, migration and the legacy of colonialism, using bold colours and dynamic forms to evoke emotional responses. Benoit’s paintings encourage viewers to consider the layered histories of the Caribbean and the ways in which these histories inform contemporary experiences.
“The three different bodies of work in this exhibition, drawing on the Grenada Revolution, Shakespeare Mas and the preservation of Grenada’s heritage.
For over 100 years, the town of St. George’s, Grenada, has been admired as the most picturesque and unique capital among the Caribbean islands. One of its key attractions is the Georgian-style architecture, characterised by brick buildings with red-tiled roofs. These structures harmoniously blend with the lush green vegetation of the hilly landscape. However, over the years, many of these buildings have been neglected, demolished by developers, or altered beyond recognition due to lack of care. In 2015, as I witnessed a demolition team discard hundreds of historic bricks, I realised that Grenada was about to lose a part of its rich heritage. I approached the owner and asked for some of the bricks for an art project, only to be told, “the bricks are for sale”. Though seemingly valueless, I recognised their immense cultural significance. The bricks embody the rich history of their production and use in constructing the buildings of St. George’s. This history is deeply intertwined with the use of enslaved labour and the legacy of colonialism. Preserving these bricks honours and respects our shared past. Paintings like Brick Wall incorporate crushed bricks mixed with paint, creating a textured medium that preserves the historic essence of the bricks themselves.
The Whip and Whipping the Mind reference Shakespeare Mas as an expression of Carriacou’s cultural heritage, which features two players engaging in competitive recitations from Shakespearean plays. While the Mas is unique to Carriacou and has always been admired by locals and visitors, the deeper significance of this tradition has often been overlooked. This collection endeavours to delve beneath the surface, unveiling hidden meanings that have escaped our awareness. Through these paintings, which include passages of text underneath expressive strokes of colour, we are encouraged to go beyond the visual aesthetics. Shakespeare Mas beyond its visual appeal, urges us to reflect on its cultural essence and unexplored dimensions, such as the use of the whip in our society.
Memories of the Grenada Revolution is a body of work that formed part of an audiovisual installation in 2020 about the memories of the Grenada Revolution from 1979–83. Viewers were invited to enter the space (7.6 x 4.5 x 3 m) to listen, view and reflect on the memories of Grenadians who lived through and experienced the Grenada Revolution. It has been the stillness of memories long subdued and suppressed that began to ripple across your consciousness. Can you recall? Is there a lesson to be learnt today from the revolution 40-plus years ago?”
Oliver Benoit
Oliver Benoit
Untitled
2020
66 x 66 cm
£5,500
Oliver Benoit
Whipping the Mind 1
2022
266.7 x 142.2 cm
£28,000
Oliver Benoit
Brick Wall
2019
101.6 x 157.5 cm
£12,500
Oliver Benoit
The Whip
2022
127 x 177.8 cm
£18,000
Oliver Benoit
The Revolution Exploded
2020
50.8 x 50.8 cm
£4,000
Oliver Benoit (b. 1957) is a Grenadian artist whose abstract works merge paint, text and historical ephemera such as crushed bricks, hessian and newsprint. Through these materials, he presents decolonising narratives and explores the sociocultural and political issues confronting Grenada. Benoit is a Professor of Sociology at St. George’s University, Grenada and holds a PhD in Sociology from Brandeis University and an MFA from Plymouth University. He has twice been included in the Grenada Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2022/2015), as well as national pavilions in Dubai (2021) and Shanghai (2010). Solo exhibitions include Art House 473, Grenada; Somerville Open Studios, Massachusetts; and Bridgetown Gallery, Barbados. His work is on public display at the Grenada Embassy, Washington, D.C.; Grenada Development Bank; and the SCBD Museum of Nature and Culture, Montreal.
Globalisation & Diaspora
The Caribbean has long been a crossroads of global movements, marked by waves of migration and the exchange of cultures, ideas and goods.
In contemporary times, globalisation has further intensified these dynamics, shaping the identities and experiences of Caribbean people both within the region and across the diaspora. Caribbean artists frequently navigate transnational identities and experiences, whether through migration, cultural exchange or digital connectivity. This section explores these themes through the works of artists, whose art reflects the complexities of belonging, displacement and cultural hybridisation.
Pauline Marcelle’s multidisciplinary approach encompasses painting, installation and video, addressing the intersections of culture, politics and identity. Her work often critiques the effects of globalisation on Caribbean societies, exploring issues of cultural commodification, economic inequality and environmental degradation. Marcelle’s art invites viewers to reflect on the broader implications of global interconnectedness and the ways in which Caribbean communities negotiate their place in a globalised world.
Pauline Marcelle
Pauline Marcelle’s multidisciplinary approach encompasses painting, installation and video, addressing the intersections of culture, politics and identity. Her work often critiques the effects of globalisation on Caribbean societies, exploring issues of cultural commodification, economic inequality and environmental degradation. Marcelle’s art invites viewers to reflect on the broader implications of global interconnectedness and the ways in which Caribbean communities negotiate their place in a globalised world.
“Pauline Marcelle’s painting series Catharsis expresses in vibrant colour and form the hopes and wishes the artist has for herself, and for society, after the last difficult pandemic years. Marcelle takes her painting in a new direction, with massive individual figures filling the canvas, as opposed to the familiar paintings where groups of people are intricately staged. Here is a celebration of life, of the individual’s triumph over adversity. The figures wear elaborate headdresses, which give them a shamanistic and magical aura. It is as if the life force itself is bursting out of them and transferring itself to us. They are striding across the scene, or squatting, or posing. The figures seem to want to express their vitality and passion for life in every way.
A catharsis is a purification that results in spiritual renewal. It also signifies the elimination of a neurotic condition, hidden in the subconscious, by giving it expression. Marcelle is freeing herself with her painting from the shackles of the physical, emotional and psychological pain that the pandemic and the accompanying restrictions have inflicted. She says herself that these works represent ‘an emotional release in times of apocalyptic occurrences’. We, the viewers, can also join her in freeing ourselves, by enjoying these highly intricate and very dense works that visually remind us how complex the composition of each individual’s soul is. Pauline Marcelle brings the value of human existence to the foreground in the Catharsis series. This reminder of the preciousness of human singularity is greatly needed right now. With her art, Marcelle gives us visual cues that are signs of hope and an encouragement to think about, as she says, the ‘forgotten tomorrows’ – while we still can.”
– Dr. Renée Gadsden, 2022
Pauline Marcelle
Pauline Marcelle
Fate of a Maroon Princess
2022
100 x 100 cm
€7,200
Pauline Marcelle
When the Spirits Fell on Earth
2021
200 x 200 cm
€18,000
Pauline Marcelle
Providence
2023
160 x 120 cm
€12,800
Pauline Marcelle
My Purgatory
2021
200 x 200 cm
€18,000
Pauline Marcelle (b. 1964, Dominica) lives and works between Dominica and Vienna, creating in various mediums such as painting, sculpture, video and installation. Her works delve into the complexities of human behaviour and the profound influence of our social and mental environments. She adapts digital collages to painterly expressions, transforming them into pictorial forms. Marcelle holds an MFA in Visual and Fine Arts from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna (2000) and participated in the Bag Factory Studio Residency in Johannesburg, South Africa (2010). She has been featured in publications including DATUM, Vogue Brazil, Elle South Africa, GQ Russia and L’Officiel Austria. Her work has been shown internationally at Grubeck Contemporary, Vienna (2023); Commonsense Gallery and La Pamplona Art Space, Paris (2022); Albertina Museum, Vienna (2019); Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto (2015); and PAMM, Miami (2014).
Lee-Ann Haslam’s work engages with themes of migration and identity, capturing the fluidity and hybridity of the Caribbean diaspora. Her art incorporates glass art, mixed media and collage, reflecting the fragility and multifaceted experiences of those who navigate multiple cultural landscapes. Through her vivid and thought-provoking pieces, Haslam explores the impact of globalisation on personal and collective identities, highlighting the resilience and adaptability of Caribbean people.
Lee-Ann Haslam
Lee-Ann Haslam’s work engages with themes of migration and identity, capturing the fluidity and hybridity of the Caribbean diaspora. Her art incorporates glass art, mixed media and collage, reflecting the fragility and multifaceted experiences of those who navigate multiple cultural landscapes. Through her vivid and thought-provoking pieces, Haslam explores the impact of globalisation on personal and collective identities, highlighting the resilience and adaptability of Caribbean people.
“Women’s self-worth or value traditionally is not defined by them. Often, it is determined by others, due to a lack of inherent self-knowledge and grounding. Ethnic women especially have become an object of entertainment for others’ pleasure, specifically in various interactions and media representations. In my works I’d like viewers to reflect and look deeper, to become aware of distortions, to embrace the evident and divine feminine presence, to fully honour oneself and reflect who we truly wish to be, rather than what is imposed.
Glass affords us the ability to examine the delicate, yet powerful nature of this. Unlike most Western aesthetics, the content presented is not symmetrical, but rather colourful, bold, unapologetic and fluid. The ‘imperfections’ are what makes each piece and woman of colour unique and, in fact, beautiful. Imperfections define our existence. They mirror and celebrate who we are, the diversity of our human experiences and the strength that can arise from facing and overcoming challenges.
As a collective, we are never broken and nothing is permanent. Glass reminds us of this. It can be broken and reformed with heat, which only renders it stronger. Each piece serves as a poignant reminder of the intricate facets of womanhood. They beckon viewers to reflect on what it genuinely means to be a woman, urging them to stand proudly and unapologetically, free from the constraints of judgments. Through artistic grace, the works seek to inspire women to shine in their own unique colourful way, reminding us all that inherent strength and growth define our journey toward self-actualisation. A call for women to have an awareness and control of their lives, challenging preconceived notions and asserting their individuality. A resounding proclamation that women’s voices should be heard, and all be able to enjoy the freedom to be their authentic selves, unburdened by societal expectations.”
Lee-Ann Haslam
Lee-Ann Haslam
Magnolia (Window)
2023
53.3 x 29.7 x 3.8 cm
$3,200
Lee-Ann Haslam
Lily (Window)
2023
53.3 x 29.7 x 3.8 cm
$3,200
Lee-Ann Haslam
Fern (Window)
2023
53.3 x 29.7 x 3.8 cm
$3,200
Lee-Ann Haslam (b. 1979, Kingston, Jamaica) lives and works between Japan and Jamaica, with a creative journey that spans continents and mediums. She studied art at the University of ITSON, Sonora, Mexico (1998) and Fordham, New York (2003). She completed her MA in Creative Glass with honours at the Tokyo University of the Arts (2012) as a national Monbukagakusho scholar. Rooted in her Jamaican heritage and nurtured through her studies in Mexico and Japan, her artistry transcends traditional boundaries, particularly in her exploration of glass as a medium. She invites us to embrace the beauty of impermanence and find meaning in the intricate dance of light and colour. Haslam exhibits worldwide with various entities, including the United Nations and her pieces are in notable collections such as the Embassy of Jamaica, Japan. Recent exhibitions include Sky Gallery, Jamaica (2023/2022) and Grosvenor Gallery, Jamaica (2022).
Sara Moreira’s art focuses on themes of displacement and the search for belonging within the Caribbean diaspora, starting with the Bahian experience in Brazil. Her work often features symbolic and metaphorical elements, creating narratives that speak to the experiences of migration and the forging of new identities. Moreira’s use of vibrant colours and dynamic compositions captures the emotional intensity of these journeys, offering a poignant commentary on the human aspects of globalisation.
Sara Moreira
Sara Moreira’s art focuses on themes of displacement and the search for belonging within the Caribbean diaspora, starting with the Bahian experience in Brazil. Her work often features symbolic and metaphorical elements, creating narratives that speak to the experiences of migration and the forging of new identities. Moreira’s use of vibrant colours and dynamic compositions captures the emotional intensity of these journeys, offering a poignant commentary on the human aspects of globalisation.
“My sculptures are a journey through time and memory, each piece a dialogue between the past and the present. Drawing on the rich cultural traditions of Salvador, Bahia, I seek to create works that are both personal and universal, inviting viewers to reflect on their own histories and connections. These sculptures, called Gelede Totems, serve as spiritual protections, honouring the ancestral mothers and their wisdom. The Gelede tradition, rooted in Yoruba culture, celebrates and worships the ancestral mothers who provide guidance and protection.
In the Gelede Totems, I incorporate glass and terracotta, as well as vibrant textiles and ceramics. These elements are inspired by the Gelede dance festival, which is a colourful and dynamic celebration of female power and community. The use of glass represents the fluidity and transparency of water, symbolising life, transformation and clarity. Terracotta, moulded from the earth, symbolises strength, durability and our connection to the land and our ancestors. The incorporation of búzios (cowrie shells) is particularly significant; historically used in spiritual practices and as currency, búzios represent protection, communication with ancestors and the enduring wisdom passed down through generations.
Each piece in this series embodies balance and resilience, often appearing as though they might topple yet remaining perfectly stable. This delicate equilibrium symbolises the strength and stability that comes from embracing and honouring our cultural heritage. Art, for me, is a means of honouring our ancestors while also carving out space for new narratives and possibilities.
The Laroye series of monochromatic black totems is a tribute to the orixá Exu, known for his role as the messenger of the gods and his association with movement, communication and the crossroads. In this series, I use phallic and rounded forms to symbolically represent Exu’s attributes. The deep black colour signifies the depth and mystery of the spiritual world, while the totems themselves stand as powerful guardians. The Laroye Totems incorporate traditional materials such as glass and ceramics. The black glass and ceramics represent the strength and solidity of our spiritual foundations. Through these works, I not only honour the spiritual significance of Exu but also invite viewers to reflect on their own journeys and the intersections of their lives. Each piece stands as a testament to the balance and resilience required to navigate the complexities of existence, mirroring the delicate equilibrium found in the Gelede Totems.”
Sara Moreira
Sara Moreira
Gelede #1
129.54 x 27.94 cm
$12,000
Sara Moreira
Gelede #2
2023
101.6 x 27.94 cm
$12,000
Sara Moreira
Gelede #4
2024
102.87 x 22.86 cm
$12,000
Sara Moreira
Gelede #5
2024
114.3 x 25.4 cm
$12,000
Sara Moreira
Laroye #1
2023
91.44 x 20.32 cm
$12,000
Sara Moreira is a Brazilian artist who currently lives and works in New York. Her sculptural works explore the interplay between culture, identity and personal history. Moreira’s art reflects her connection to her roots, growing up in Salvador, Bahia – a city where rich cultural traditions and spirituality are deeply interwoven into the fabric of daily life, particularly through the Afro-Brazilian religion candomblé. The dynamic elements of Salvador’s cultural heritage permeate her creative expression. In her sculptures, Moreira employs a variety of materials including ceramics, glass, terracotta and textiles, creating intricate compositions that evoke the layered nature of memory and identity. Her art is a testament to the enduring power of cultural heritage and its ability to inform and enrich contemporary life. In July 2024, Moreira opened the solo exhibition Totems of Memory at Dell Anno, New York.
Sonia E. Barrett’s work delves into the themes of globalisation and diaspora with a nuanced perspective. Her installations and sculptures explore the material and cultural exchanges that define the Caribbean’s global connections. Barrett’s art highlights the tensions and synergies between local traditions and global influences, encouraging viewers to consider the ongoing processes of cultural negotiation and transformation within the diaspora.
Sonia E. Barrett
Sonia E. Barrett’s work delves into the themes of globalisation and diaspora with a nuanced perspective. Her installations and sculptures explore the material and cultural exchanges that define the Caribbean’s global connections. Barrett’s art highlights the tensions and synergies between local traditions and global influences, encouraging viewers to consider the ongoing processes of cultural negotiation and transformation within the diaspora.
“I think about how to change perceptions of phenomena in ‘nature’ that are a given. The work seeks to create new questions, where previously there was a kind of certainty that has to do with the hegemony of normative Western values. I make sculptural works so I can run my hands along the fissures and manifest strategies for multiple compatible existences.
Sometimes, as a black child in predominantly white spaces in England, I would enter public bathrooms and notice black people labouring in them. I work at not seeing you, I am tired of not being seen distils ‘different but the same’ dialogues between black people that don’t come to the fore when we explain our othered selves to people. The bathtub feet are larger in stature and no longer holding the bath, while the small gold feet still labour at holding the mirror. Both these feet could have been labouring in the same bathroom. If they were, how would they see each other? What would it mean to enter a space you used to labour in and notice someone is still labouring? Do you look or look away? The larger figure can see themselves in the labour of the smaller figure, actually and metaphorically. What does the smaller figure sense?
— — — —
My small Sky works are an index of the larger Sky, first installed at Villa Romana in Italy and inspired by the vast open skies. The small work contains all of the themes of the larger sky but is in dialogue with the European traditions of display, looking at a preserved version of an aspect of the natural world. Victorians kept specimens under glass domes or bell jars as a kind of index, an archive for scientific and visual pleasure. Black people have a history of display as flora and fauna in European institutions. The glass dome references this and the writings of black people who articulate the present-day lived experience of being a touchable specimen in predominantly white spaces. The glass enables looking but not touching.
Most importantly, the bell jar is not used to single out, identify, examine and ‘pin down’ a single species. Instead, the work separates a commonplace trait of many black people in a non-identifiable way. African textured hair as a cloud is an attempt to build a new sky centring black people. Whilst negatively loaded in English, the black cloud is the fertile pregnant cloud, ready to release life-giving water. The black cloud is authentically in relationship with many soils, living in a kind of diaspora beyond any single nation-state, ascending from the soil in one nation and returning to the soil in another. The hair is isolated in the jar in such a way as to suggest visual connections with wider cyclical systems of the natural biosphere as a whole. Black ways of understanding the soil and the sky have long been looked down on as undeveloped; perhaps the opposite will be shown to be true.”
Sonia E. Barrett
Sonia E. Barrett
I work at not seeing you, I am tired of not being seen.
2014
30 x 30 x 50 cm
£4,708
Sonia E. Barrett
Sky nr 3
2013
23 x 12 cm
£4,708
Sonia E. Barrett
Chair nr. 52
2019
54 x 29 x 7 cm
£4,708
Sonia E. Barrett was born in the UK of Jamaican and German parentage, and grew up in Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Cyprus and the UK. Her work explores the objectification and commodification of plants, animals, elements and people. She challenges perceptions of nature and normative Western values, focusing on race and gender. Barrett studied literature at the University of St Andrews, Scotland and received her MFA from Transart Institute Berlin/New York. She is a MacDowell Fellow and a Premio Ora Prize recipient. She has exhibited at the National Gallery of Jamaica; Tate Britain and the British Library, London; 32 Degrees East Gallery, Kampala; Heinrich Böll Institute and Kunsthaus Nürnberg, Germany. Her work has been shown at a number of galleries, including the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art; neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Berlin; Format Contemporary in Milan/Basel; and John Hansard Gallery, Southampton.
About the curator
Jennifer Francis is an internationally recognised leader in the culture and heritage sector, with a significant focus on artist development and nurturing practitioners across the Caribbean. In her first presentation of important Pan-Caribbean voices, she has carefully selected some of the most powerful artists of the day, representing her vision of highlighting this largely unrecognised source of creativity. Most recently, Francis served as the Director of External Affairs for the Museum of London. Prior to this role, she was the Director of Brand and Marketing at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey. She has also held executive and senior leadership positions at prominent institutions, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Additionally, she serves as a trustee of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust and is an Advisory Board Member at the Attenborough Arts Centre.
We are no longer prepared to accept that it is OK for us to constantly suffer significant clear, demonstrated loss and damage arising from climatic events and be expected to borrow to rebuild year after year while the countries that are responsible for creating (and) exacerbating the situation sit idly with platitudes and tokenism.
Dickon Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique and Chairman of CARICOM
Chosen Charity
National Disaster Management Agency
The National Disaster Management Agency (NaDMA) is the body charged with the responsibility of coordinating all disaster-related activities on Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Their mission is to reduce the loss of life and property by ensuring that adequate preparedness, response and mitigation measures are in place to deal with the impact of hazards, most recently Hurricane Beryl.