Caribbean Art on Display for Art Basel Season 2018 at FIU’s Frost Art Museum

MIAMI – Florida International University’s Frost Art Museum, the Smithsonian Affiliate in Miami, announces a powerful new season of exhibitions and programming for Art Basel Season 2018 in Miami.

Headlining this year is Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago (Oct. 13 – Jan. 13), the first major survey of this size and scope of 21st century art by 67 contemporary Caribbean artists representing 14 Caribbean countries, whose works offer expansive perspectives that transcend the boundaries imposed upon Caribbean cultures.

“Because of Miami’s geographic proximity to the Caribbean nations, as well as our cultural mosaic which Caribbean cultures have shaped, it was important for us to bring this exhibition to Miami during Art Basel season,” said Dr. Jordana Pomeroy, the Director of the museum.

“Our new season opens up a dialogue about global commonalities rather than differences, from ecological changes to societal values around the world.”

Nearly seventy works by Caribbean painters, installation artists, sculptors, photographers, video and performance artists connect through ideas that go beyond language barriers, politics, and historic colonial divides.

Artists in Relational Undercurrents include: Allora & Calzadilla, Edouard Duval-Carrie, Adler Guerrier, Deborah Jack, Glenda Leon, Beatriz Santiago Munoz, Angel Otero, Manuel Pina, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Jimmy Robert and Didier William, among others.

Dancing, Pouring, Crackling and Mourning – 2015
by Didier William
Grand Opening & Panel Discussion

On October 13th, join the Frost Museum for the opening of “Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art from the Caribbean Archipelago,” and a panel discussion on contemporary art by Caribbean artists and the prevailing issues related to the Caribbean.

Tatiana Flores, Curator of the exhibition, will talk with artists in the show, Adler Guerrier and Charo Oquet, and Dr. Andrea J. Queeley, Associate Professor of Anthropology at FIU.

The 3:00pm panel will be followed by the exhibition opening at 4:00 pm. Click here to RSVP and for more details.

Art Basel Season 2018 Exhibitions

Features more than 67 contemporary artists with roots in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Curacao, Aruba, Saint Maarten, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados and Saint Vincent. Departing from the premise that the concept of Latin America favors mainland countries.

The exhibition proposes a mapping of the region that begins with the islands. Arising from a legacy of colonialism, recurrent themes include race and ethnicity, history, identity, sovereignty, migration and sustainability.

 The works in this exhibition speak for the Caribbean’s indigenous peoples whose homes were fractured and divided by colonialism.

These are spaces that were mercilessly exploited for labor and goods by distant European monarchies.

This area also marks the site of one of the West’s first rebellions (the Haitian slave revolt which led to the independence of the island in 1804) and the Cuban War of Independence in 1898, a byproduct of the Spanish-American War. The Caribbean is inhabited by many different indigenous cultures whose languages include Spanish, Dutch, English, French and Creole.

Although the Caribbean has been fragmented by centuries of tyranny and domination, the contemporary artists in this exhibition draw upon themes of connection that often envision what lies beyond imposed borderlines.

Relational Undercurrents is curated by Tatiana Flores, Associate Professor of Art History and Latino and Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University, this exhibition was organized by the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time LA/LA.

Artists in this section challenge the organization of traditional maps. In contrast to colonial maps, these artists create images that inspire a process of decolonialization, creating new spaces that suggest a more diverse, just and complex concept of the world.

Horizons are the prominent characteristic of island geography, representing boundaries and possibilities. Whether the artists in this section incorporate

the horizon as a portal to the past or present, or as a representation of limit or potential, each artist in this section contributes to a common dialogue about this prominent feature where they live – offering strength in the acceptance of infinity.

The Caribbean is a region of shared ecosystems and inhabitants. Artists in this section depict landscapes in relation with to history, ecological issues, and current social and economic issues. Perceptions of the Caribbean have shifted throughout history from those of wonder, to fears of disease and degeneration during the height of colonialism.

All Caribbean islands have seen their autonomy challenged through colonialism and foreign occupations. Political agency is elusive and, in many cases, unattainable. Representation takes on an urgency for artists in Relational Undercurrents, who actively reconfigure the world they inhabit through social practice and self-expression.

Exit mobile version