Caribbean: Crossroads of the World

Renée Cox, Redcoat, from Queen Nanny of the Maroons series, 2004, Color digital inkjet print on watercolor paper, 76 x 44 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Pérez Art Museum Miami

On April 18, Pérez Art Museum Miami opens the exhibition “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World,” which explores the diverse cultural history of the Caribbean and its diaspora, highlighting more than two centuries of rarely seen works dating from after the Haitian Revolution to the present.

The exhibition is the culmination of nearly a decade of collaborative research and scholarship organized by El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, New York, in conjunction with the Queens Museum and The Studio Museum in Harlem. The Miami presentation, curated for PAMM by guest curator Elvis Fuentes, is a honed reiteration of this critically acclaimed survey and offers a vital reflection of Miami’s Caribbean community.

With more than 180 objects, including paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, installations and videos, this show employs a transhistorical approach to explore the many nations and cultures that comprise the Caribbean and focuses on four central themes: Fluid Motions, Counterpoints, Shades of History and Kingdoms of this World. These interconnected frameworks provide common ground and allow insight into the complex context from which the vital and varied artistic production of the region has emerged, illuminating multiple histories. Artists who have lived and worked in the Caribbean, as well as those living abroad who responded to the rich visual tradition and history of the area are shown side by side. This exhibition mixes historical work by artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Víctor Patricio Landaluze, Camille Pissarro, Wifredo Lam, Rigaud Benoit, Amelia Pélaez and Armando Reverón, with works by contemporary artists, including Allora & Calzadilla, Janine Antoni, Renée Cox, Glexis Novoa and Ebony G. Patterson, among many others. The exhibition will be on view through August 17, 2014.