Llewellyn Xavier “The Mating Dance Of The Unicorn”

Unix Gallery

[Image: Llewellyn Xavier "Blue Mermaid Symphony" (2017) Oil on canvas 40 x 30 in.]

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UNIX Gallery presents The Mating Dance Of The Unicorn by artist Llewellyn Xavier, a survey of paintings that reflects the light and life of his native St. Lucia. Featuring brand new paintings and compelling works never before seen in the gallery, this marks Xavier’s first solo exhibition at UNIX Gallery.

Llewellyn Xavier is renowned for using brilliant colors to reflect the light and life of the Caribbean. His art serves a multiplicity of functions; philosophical as well as aesthetic. Drawing inspiration from contemporaries of American Abstract Expressionism, Xavier’s bold daring vision and grandiose gestures manifest in a boundless energy of sheer force of purpose and power. His artwork is free of restraint, creating a pure vision that is both relevant and immediate.

From his early representational oil paintings through his work taking on racial and political themes in the 1960s and 1970s, to more abstract series of watercolors influenced by ancient myths, Xavier’s work rejoices in the natural world. It often reflects his love of the environmental landscape surrounding him through the use of color and light. Xavier left Saint Lucia for Barbados in 1962. Working as an agricultural apprentice, the artist was first introduced to watercolors at this time. His first exhibition was a great success, and soon his reputation was established. In 1968, Xavier moved to England, where he became a pioneer in the field of mail art. He enrolled in the school of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1979, and for a time was a Cistercian monk in Montreal. In 1987, he left the monastery, marrying and returning to Saint Lucia.

Born in 1945 in Saint Lucia, Llewellyn Xavier is represented in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 2004, Xavier was made a member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition for his contribution to art.