Simonette Quamina “Canboulay”

Smack Mellon

[Image: Simonette Quamina " Confirmation in Victoria’s Regia" (2018). Graphite, monoprint on Kitakata paper, dry mounted on cotton paper, 36 x 72 in.]

This event has ended.

Simonette Quamina’s practice is rooted in the intersection between family, agricultural histories, and sociopolitical events that have shaped global migration and labor. Growing up between Canada, Guyana, St. Vincent, and the United States, the artist explores ideas of belonging through intimate scenes from her family’s history in natural settings and domestic interiors. The title Canboulay refers to the Caribbean celebration stemming from the Trinidad slave rebellion, as well as the burning of sugarcane fields. For this exhibition, Quamina accesses the joyous aspects of Canboulay through the dark recesses of the celebration’s history. She combines art historical imagery from Millet’s melancholic Ophelia with family stories and connects legacies of sugar production in the Caribbean to its role in sustaining slavery in the region.