"Caribbean: Crossroads of the World" Exhibition

Queens Museum of Art

poster for "Caribbean: Crossroads of the World" Exhibition

This event has ended.

The show features more than 400 works including painting, sculpture, prints, books, photography, film, video and historic artifacts from various Caribbean nations, Europe and the United States. Transcendent in scope, CARIBBEAN: Crossroads examines the exchange of people, goods, ideas and information between the Caribbean basin, Europe and North America and explores the impact of these relationships on the Caribbean and how it is imagined.

This exhibition will offer a compelling and dramatic exploration of the Caribbean and its Diaspora from the Haitian Revolution to the present. Using a variety of objects from the collections of distinguished international institutions and archives, the exhibition will explore the transformation experienced by the region from the late eighteenth century on. Drawing upon new research of the last decades conducted here and abroad, the project will advance understanding of the Caribbean as a crossroads for the modern world within the Western hemisphere. It will break new ground in areas of scholarship that have been neglected, such as the intense and complex dialogue between the Caribbean and the United States. Furthermore, it will address a series of themes inspired by geopolitical, ethnographic, historical and cultural events that have influenced the way the Caribbean looks—and the way it is imagined. Several institutions, including the Americas Society, Bronx Museum and Nathan Cummings Foundation, among others, will mount related, concurrent exhibitions throughout the city.

“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.

An international advisory group of scholars and artists have been working with all three institutions since 2006 to plan and present scholarly discussions, public programming, events, educational components, the multi-venue exhibition, and a major publication, Caribbean: Art at the Crossroads of the World. A Caribbean educational initiative for students and educators in the New York City area is also in the works.

Tom Finkelpearl, Executive Director of the Queens Museum of Art, states: “The wonderful vibrancy of Queens stems from the myriad cross-cultural conversations that take place on a daily basis in the country’s most diverse locale, and Caribbean voices contribute in meaningful ways to the ongoing discourse shaping our borough, and our city. With CARIBBEAN: Crossroads, three visionary institutions have come together to explore those voices, artistic traditions, historical events and poignant themes that speak as much to the Caribbean of the past centuries, as they do to the ever-changing Diaspora that we experience everyday in Queens.”

Media

  • Facebook

    Reviews

    All content on this site is © their respective owner(s).
    New York Art Beat (2008) - About - Contact - Privacy - Terms of Use