PAST EXHIBITION
The Art of the Caribbean: an exploration
Curated by Anu Mitra, Ph.D.
The Caribbean is both a geography and a political area that covers broad swaths of land and sea. It is bound by the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean and spraying its waters are a litter of 700 islands that constitute 34 distinct countries. In turn, these 34 nations continue to be colonized by the British, French, Dutch, Spanish, Belgian, and Portuguese. Forced migration from faraway lands also brought millions of people to these shores.
That is how, as an example, South Asian Indians (also called East Indians in the region) showed up in this archipelago as cheap labor working for their British colonial superpower. Adding further complexity is the Caribbean diaspora—whole groupings of those from the Caribbean who emigrated to other countries but who are still profoundly connected to the homeland. That is why it is safe to say that a monolithic, comprehensible category called the ‘Caribbean people’ or ‘Caribbean Art’ does not exist. Rather, the idea of the arts emerging from the region of the Caribbean is more accurate. This art is at once elastic and deep. It offers a broad canvas for the creation and integration of multiple overlapping identities. It generates space for art that serves as a visual identifier of the complex mishmash of identities that emerged— and where multiple pluralities co-exist in some sort of imperfect harmony. Contemporary art that is emerging from the region encompasses this global narrative by showcasing a lasagna of identities, becoming layered on top of each other and forming some sort of a whole.
I have no known connection to the Caribbean but when my youngest son was writing his AP US History term paper, an assignment mandated that he conduct an interview with his parents (or a parental figure). As a matter of curiosity, he needed to find out who we were and this necessitated going back to the beginning. A search for my beginnings as a South Asian American, led me to the first onslaught of migration—of South Asian Indians coming to the New World in the 1800s. And that is how my Fulbright project continues to evolve as I look to the artists who emerged from Trinidad and Tobago specifically. Beyond the consumerist notion of the Caribbean being a pleasure playground, where the sun always shines and the water is always blue, there are many topics that need investigation and interrogation.
Themes that emerge in the art of the Caribbean settle on a search of identity, the idea of dislocation, of trauma, the idea of movement and fluidity across water. Caribbean life and culture that is specific to a certain people are often a springboard for the creation of a boundary, and then the boundary is broken so that other ways of living and becoming may be imagined. Destructive creation and fictional re-creation are in process as we continue to understand images of Island life, the memory of water, what it takes to remain afloat, and what it feels like to drown.
I hope that this exhibition posted on Bader + Simon will provide you with much food for thought. And check out the podcasts and blogs in this section to see how scholars, practitioners, and artists are reinterpreting the art of the Caribbean.
Wendy Nanan
Wendy Nanan (b. 1955, Trinidad & Tobago) is an artist whose work focuses on the multi-racial aspects of Trinidadian society, often featuring images of religious figures and post-colonial symbolism. In an artistic practice spanning over forty years, Nanan has explored the meanings of home/place, Indo-Caribbean cultural and post-indenture identity, religious syncretism and symbolism, decolonization and postcolonialism, and everyday global Caribbean existence.
As a Buddhist who is known for being reclusive, Nanan draws inspiration from her practice. In Breath, Nanan works incessantly on the four pairs of shell and papier-mâché sculptures for over a year. Andil Gosine writes: “The idea for the project came while Nanan was watching a nature show on PBS. “There was a shot of a clam caught in the sand, with the tide going out. It was trying to breathe by opening in and out. That image of the clam in motion, as it struggled for life out of the water, has always stayed with me.” … “[By] experimenting with the angles of how one stuck in the shells, and also by adjusting the depths of the underlying physical structure, I realized that you could create a sense of movement.” Thus the birth of Breath, four pairs of these shells that mimic that clam, struggling to breathe. “As I stood, following the sequence of the pairs of shells, I was myself breathing in and out with them and found it deeply calming and centering, as if in a meditation session,” she says. “I hope Breath will serve audiences in the same way. We all, the whole world, need to take some deep breaths right now.”
Persona, 1984. Papier-mâché and oil paint
Pods, 2016, papier mache, wire, shells, paint, variable dimensions
Idyllic marriage, 1990, papier-mache, oil, paint; 21x17x6 inches
Breath, 2020. Papier-mâché, oil paint, shells.Kearra Amaya Gopee
Kearra Amaya Gopee is a multidisciplinary visual artist from Carapichaima, Trinidad and Tobago, based in Los Angeles. Their research-based practice focuses on the nature of violence and erasure, and the particularities of those that are inflicted on the Caribbean and its diasporas by the global north. Through interventions, Gopee aims to temper what we have known to be true with the potential of intuitive knowledge that has been historically cast aside in favor of Western assimilation. Gopee holds a MFA from UCLA; BFA in Photography and Imaging from New York University and is an alumni of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Using video, sculpture, sound, writing and other media, they identify both violence and time as primary conditions that form the bedrock of growing up Black in a very complex, racial, social, and cultural mix of peoples in Trinidad and Tobago. In the spirit of maroonage, they have been developing an artist residency in Trinidad and Tobago titled a small place--after Jamaica Kincaid's book of the same name--to begin in 2023.
darryl (looking in the water for someone who isn't you), 2017.
International Panorama (Silver Stars), 2016. Wendell McShine
Wendell McShine (b. 1989, Trinidad and Tobago) whose work includes paintings, murals, animated videos, and video installations. McShine has lived in the US and Mexico and founded the community arts program Art Connect.
He grew up working-class in the Trinidadian towns of Tunapunaand Arima and was the ninth of ten children in his family. He said in a magazine interview: “Coming up with dignity and focus through challenging conditions in the Caribbean ghetto, the 9th of ten brothers and sisters, has inspired me to delve into the avenues of the human condition and nature.
In ..the third world.., where opportunities don’t come by unless you have courage, spirit, and conviction has been an undercover blessing allowing me to draw from my own life experiences and giving me a huge hunger to tell multidimensional stories that inspire.”
He studied graphic communications at the John S Donaldson Technical Institute in Port of Spain and was a commercial graphic artist with two national newspapers and a magazine. On being awarded a Reuters News Foundation fellowship to study Information Graphics, he attended the University of Navarra-Pamplona in Spain.
McShine moved to Mexico where he found inspiration in “the colors, textures and most definitely the diversity of different indigenous tribes. My inspiration really is universal, but Mexico is where I feel alive. Everything here is on a higher vibration”
McShine's aesthetic blends Trinidadian and Mexican influences with graphics and street art. "The main inspirations in my work are derived from investigations of fantasy, anthropology, and spiritual narratives. The visual languages that are created from these inspirations result in groups of quasi-magical characters and identities. Drawings, found objects and paper cut-outs become animated films that are sometimes used to inform works on canvas, works on paper, and mixed media.”
He was intrigued by the "islands esthetics” of Trinidad, including “old bottle cap designs, crude signage typography, and carnival costumes”.
Wendell McShine's awards, fellowships, and honours include
• Liverpool artist in residency at the BLUECOAT Award, UK, 2012
• Trinidad and Tobago Film Company Award, “Art Connect Documentary”, T&T, 2010
• The Reuters News Foundation Next Generation News Graphic Award, UK, 2001
• TEDxYouth USA Facebook Headquarters, USA, 2013
100 Jump Shots, 2020, mixed media
Fifty24-SF
Raven’s Talk PaintingSybil Marjory Atteck
Sybil Marjory Atteck (Trinidad, 1911−75) was a pioneering painter known for her work in oils, ceramics, watercolors, acrylics and mixed media. She is celebrated as Trinidad and Tobago's "first outstanding female painter", "first Great Woman Painter", and was the inspiration for, and a founding member, of the Trinidad Art Society, now known as The Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago, the oldest established art organization in the Caribbean.
When she was a teenager, Atteck’s family moved from Rio Claro to Port-of-Spain in Trinidad, where, with the encouragement of her grandmother, she was exposed to music, crochet, embroidery, floral arrangements, and the design of Carnival costumes. After leaving high school in 1928, she began working at the Botanical Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, taking a brief absence in 1934 to attend the Regent Street Polytechnic. In the early 1940s, she continued her studies in the arts at schools in Peru and Washington University in St. Louis. Atteck was also a sculptor and completed works for the Trinidad Hilton Hotel and the Malick Roman Catholic Church. She was the first Secretary of the Trinidad Art Society, later becoming its President and gaining honorary life membership.
Sexy Pink, 1974, Mixed Media, 30 x 22″
Belmont c. 1960, oil on board, 11.5 x 15.5″
The Labourer, 1948, oil on canvas, 35 x 23″
Family Unit, 1972, oil on canvas, 27 x 45″Christopher Cozier
Christopher Cozier (b. 1959, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago) lives and works in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Cozier is an artist, writer and curator, whose work aims to explore and affect conventional readings of the Caribbean. His practice is informed by the writings and the life journey of C.L.R James, a Trinidadian historian, journalist and socialist, who was a leading voice of Pan Africanism. For Cozier, the Caribbean is a fluid space and an ongoing negotiation with shifting narratives and interpretations. From notebook drawings to video installations, Cozier’s artistic practice investigates how historical and current experiences inform our understanding of the wider contemporary world. He is the co-director of Alice Yard and a 2013 Prince Claus Award laureate. Recent exhibitions include 14th Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2019); Historisk Museum, Norway (2019); 10th Berlin Biennale, Germany (2018); and Museum of Latin American Art, USA (2017).
Through his notebook drawings to installations derived from recorded staged actions, Cozier investigates how Caribbean historical and current experiences can inform understandings of the wider contemporary world. Exhibitions include the 5th & 7th Havana Biennials, “Infinite Island,” The Brooklyn Museum (2007); “Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic” (2010), TATE Liverpool; “Entanglements” at the Broad Museum, Michigan (2015); “Relational Undercurrents” at MOLAA. L.A. (2017); and “The Sea is History,” Historiskmuseum, Oslo (2019). Cozier participated in the public program of 10th Berlin Biennial (2018), exhibited in the 14th Sharjah Biennial (2019), the 11th Liverpool Biennial (2021), Industrial Art Biennial, Croatia (2020), and currently in “Más Allá, el Mar Canta (Beyond, the Sea Sings)” at the Times Art Center, Berlin, as well as “Fragments of Epic Memory” at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and “Experiences of Oil” at the Stavanger Museum, Norway.
He received a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, (1986) and an MFA in Visual Arts, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers (1988).
Things that crawl between spaces, mixed media on paper, 2015.
Put your hand in the air and jump and jump Dig it up and down Watch the plates shake Silicone bit head snake Pump to the right and … ,2013. 
turbulence, 2019–2021. Installation view at Lush Building, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob BattersbyNguyen Smith
Nyugen E. Smith is a Caribbean-American interdisciplinary artist based in Jersey City, NJ. Through performance, found object sculpture, mixed media drawing, painting, video, photo and writing, Nyugen deepens his knowledge of historical and present-day conditions of Black African descendants in the diaspora. Trauma, spiritual practices, language, violence, memory, architecture, landscape and climate change are primary concerns in his practice.
Nyugen holds a BA, Fine Art from Seton Hall University and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been presented at the Museum of Latin American Art, Peréz Art Museum, Museum of Cultural History, Norway, Nordic Black Theater, Norway, Newark Museum, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, among others. Nyugen is the recipient of the Creative Capital award, Leonore Annenberg Performing and Visual Arts Fund, Franklin Furnace Fund, Dr. Doris Derby Award, New Jersey State Council on the Arts grant, and Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant.
Spirit Carrier, No. 10From the Nasher Sculpture Center:“The work of artist Nyugen E. Smith examines the universal human experiences of memory, trauma, and spirituality through the multifarious impacts of colonialism on the African diaspora. A first-generation Caribbean-American born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Haitian and Trinidadian parents, and a Lecturer on Interdisciplinary Art at SMU in Dallas, Smith uses performance, found object sculpture, mixed media drawing, painting, video, photography, and writing to connect past upheavals with present political struggles. For Nasher Public, Smith presents fifteen Spirit Carriers, a series of found object constructions that the artist began in 2016. Suspended from the ceiling, the sculptures seem to float in the space, like eccentric, improvised air balloons. Their characteristic shape derives from the crowns of Yoruba chiefs, whose beaded headdresses featured veils to shield the monarch’s visage from the public, thus also protecting viewers from the chief’s power. Smith made the Spirit Carriers as vessels to carry and protect the spirits of unarmed people of color killed by the police, until, as the artist says, “the spirits can go where they need to go.”
Bundlehouse: Migrant Magic. 2022. Wood, canvas, watercolor, acrylic, oil pastel, graphite, colored pencil, metal, twine, paper, plastic, rope, cowbell, bottlecap, cork, beeswax, diaspora soil, fabric, sequins, beads, ball, nails, leather, nails, 58 x 64 inches. Boscoe Holder
Boscoe Holder (1921-2007, Trinidad), is one of the leading painters of Trinidad and Tobago, who had a celebrated international career spanning six decades as a designer and visual artist, dancer, choreographer and musician.
Living in London, England, during the 1950s and 1960s, Boscoe Holder has been credited with introducing limbo dancing and steel-pan playing to Britain, performing on television and radio, in variety and nightclubs, in films, and at well-known theatres in the West End. His company also danced for Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation in 1953, and, two years later, at Windsor Castle.
He is considered an important painter whose works focused on the people and culture of the Caribbean world. He was an early member of the Trinidad Art Society.
As well as dancing, during his two decades in London, Holder continued to paint and his work was exhibited at various British galleries. In 1970 Holder returned to Trinidad and quickly re-established himself as a painter, "with an unbroken record of annual shows from 1979 onwards, sometimes two, three or four in a year". His work has been exhibited all over the Caribbean and elsewhere internationally. His paintings can be seen in collections throughout the world, preserving West Indian culture. In 1981, a Holder painting was presented by the then President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, as a wedding gift from the nation to Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
In 1973, in recognition of Boscoe Holder's contribution to the Arts, the government of Trinidad and Tobago awarded him the Hummingbird Medal (gold) and named a street after him.
In 2003, Boscoe Holder was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by the University of the West Indies.
In 2012, Holder's former studio at 84 Woodford Street, Port of Spain, became the "101 Art Gallery at Holder's Studio" owned by Mark Pereira. It is now a Heritage House owned by Carmelita Bissesarsingh, who has developed Boscoe House as an artist’s residency for artists, scholars, and the interested public.
Woman in White II, giclee print, 8” x 24”
Girl with a Parasol, 1986, giclee print, 20”x16”
Sea Bathers Maracus, giclee print, 30” x 27”Exhibition Resources
The CCI at Pérez Art Museum Miami promotes Caribbean art and its diasporas through exhibitions, fellowships, public programs, and collection development, aiming to transform appreciation and understanding of Caribbean art across regions.Pérez Art Museum Miami offers programs for all ages and interests.
CCADI is an NYC-based organization that preserves and promotes African Diaspora cultural traditions, values, and history through exhibitions, workshops, lectures, performances, and community outreach. They focus on connecting people of different cultures and backgrounds through shared experiences and knowledge and partnering with other organizations to support research, advocacy, and social change in communities of the African Diaspora worldwide. Their website offers information about their mission, programs, events, resources, and opportunities to get involved.
DVCAI is a Miami-based nonprofit organization that promotes the vision and cultural identity of the Caribbean and Latinx Diaspora through residency programs, workshops, exhibitions, public events, community outreach initiatives, and education programs. They support cultural exchange, social justice, and artistic innovation while preserving the rich cultural heritage of Caribbean and Latinx artists. Their website provides information about their mission, programs, events, opportunities, and ways to get involved.