Caribbean

ON THE EDGE OF VISIBILITY – AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

This symposium offers a transcontinental approach and encompasses postcolonial, feminist, and queer perspectives. Topics discussed will consider the concerns and complexities of defining what it means to be a Black or Indigenous woman artist within different cultural settings.

MINIA BIABIANY & ÁLVARO BARRIOS APPROACH COLONIAL ISSUES FROM THEIR CARIBBEAN ANCESTRY

Minia Biabiany’s exhibition approaches the issue of ecology from a non-Western, and more specifically Caribbean, perspective. Thanks to its poetic, ephemeral form, the artist’s work forces us to take a closer look at previously ignored aspects of French colonial history, which is perpetuated through pernicious acts of covert violence. Featured concurrently, an exhibition of Álvaro Barrios’s work brings the discussion to focus on the history of bloodshed in the Caribbean region.

María Elena Ortiz (Puerto Rico), curadora PAMM, 2019. Cortesía: Pérez Art Museum Miami

CARIBBEAN FUTURE. CONVERSATION WITH MARÍA ELENA ORTIZ

Taking into account the number of Caribbean exhibitions focused on past and present histories, «The Other Side of Now: Foresight in Contemporary Caribbean Art» curated by María Elena Ortiz and Marsha Pearce at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) approaches the Caribbean as an experiment of possibilities based on time. From the question “what might a Caribbean future look like?” fourteen artists were invited to develop works that challenge the imaginary of exuberance, primitivism, sexuality, tropical paradise and catastrophe, that have defined the region. In this interview, we talked with María Elena Ortiz (Puerto Rico, 1984) about her curatorial trajectory, visibility platforms, and Caribbean future in the exhibition context.

Jorge González, Ensayos Libertarios. Vista de la exposición "Topologías del Exceso", en la Harold J. Miossi Art Gallery, Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, California, EEUU. Cortesía del artista

Topologies of Excess:a Survey of Contemporary Practices From Puerto Rico

Cuesta College and the Harold J. Miossi Art Gallery have invited eight Puerto Rican artists whose work examines the notion of ‘excess.’ In the island’s marginal corners, excess has helped to manifest emancipatory practices, opening spaces of intersectional solidarity – spaces of shared struggle where new practices can emerge. With participating artists Amara Abdal Figueroa, Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda, Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Jorge González, Natalia Lassalle Morillo, Juan Alberto Negroni, Mónica Rodríguez, and Mariola Rosario.

"Ecologías culturales del Caribe: conectando pasados, presentes y futuros" fue el tema de la cuarta edición de Tilting Axis en la República Dominicana (2018), que contó con la participación de 80 curadores, artistas y gestores provenientes de 28 países.

Tilting Axis, a Change Agent in The Caribbean

While there is currently a notable international interest in contemporary visual practices from the Caribbean and its diaspora, for Tilting Axis the challenge is to deepen those commitments, so that exchanges with and within the region remain in time and do not move away with the transience of the discourses and the tendencies of the moment. We talked with the core team about how this vital project works and what are some of its present challenges.