NYAB Event - “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World” Exhibition

“Caribbean: Crossroads of the World” Exhibition

El Museo del Barrio

This event has ended.

The exhibition Caribbean: Crossroads of the World is the culmination of nearly a decade of collaborative research and scholarship organized by El Museo del Barrio in conjunction with the Queens Museum of Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem. Presenting work at the three museums and accompanied by an ambitious range of programs and events, Caribbean: Crossroads offers an unprecedented opportunity to explore the diverse and impactful cultural history of the Caribbean basin and its diaspora. More than 500 works of art spanning four centuries illuminate changing aesthetics and ideologies and provoke meaningful conversations about topics ranging from commerce and cultural hybridity to politics and pop culture.

Margarita Aguilar, Director of El Museo del Barrio, notes: “El Museo del Barrio is very proud to be leading groundbreaking research into the artistic heritage of a region that scholars have too often overlooked. With our visionary collaborators, we are expanding our understanding of the region. The rich history of the Caribbean and its global impact is astonishing, and we look forward to celebrating this with our communities through the arts.”

“We’ve employed a polyphonic perspective to deal with a huge archipelago that it is as diverse and complex as New York City, which is, to many, the largest Caribbean city,” reflects Project Director Elvis Fuentes. “For the first time ever, this project will examine the impact of Africa, South Asia and Europe on the visual culture of the Caribbean, including painters that were part of the Impressionists and Surrealists in France, to homegrown schools recovering popular traditions and developing original styles…the public will realize how intertwined the Caribbean and American experiences truly are.”

CARIBBEAN: Crossroads will explore six distinct themes split amongst the three venues.

EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO

Counterpoints reflects on Caribbean plantation systems and industries such as sugar, fruit, tobacco and coffee, which had tremendous aesthetic and social impact while proving to be a source of wealth and conflict. Patriot Acts studies the idea that artists and intellectuals in the Caribbean were instrumental in the creation of the identity, both visual and conceptual, of the young Caribbean nations, which often pitted traditional, academic aesthetics against the “authentic,” indigenous and African past of the region.

THE QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART

Fluid Motions examines the complexities of the geographical and geopolitical realities of a region made up of islands and coastal areas, connected and separated by bodies of water. Kingdoms of this World considers the amazing variety of languages, cultures and religions that co-exist in the
Caribbean, and their role in the development of popular traditions such as syncretic religions, newly created language, and the carnival.

THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM

Shades of History explores the significance of race and its relevance to the history and culture of the Caribbean, beginning with the pivotal moment of the Haitian Revolution in 1804. Race is analyzed as a trigger for discussions on human rights, social status and beauty. Land of the Outlaw addresses the dual images of the Caribbean as a utopic place of pleasure and a land of deviance and illicit activity. Here artists debunk widespread myths and stereotypes, such as those of pirates, zombies and drug smugglers.