Relational undercurrents

de Tatiana Flores, Michelle Ann Stephens

Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago' will call attention to a region of the Americas that is difficult to categorize and often overlooked: the island nations of the Caribbean. The exhibition proposes an archipelagic model defining the Caribbean from the perspective of its archipelago of islands, as distinct from the continental experience to study issues around race, history, the legacy of colonialism, and the environment. The exhibition features artists from the Hispanophone, Anglophone, Francophone, and Dutch Caribbean. Relational Undercurrents will emphasize the thematic continuities of art made throughout the archipelago and its diasporas, challenging conventional geographic and conceptual boundaries of Latin America. This approach draws particular attention to issues arising from the colonial legacy that are relevant to Latin America as a whole, but which emerge as central to the work of 21st-century Caribbean artists, including Janine Antoni (Bahamas), Humberto Diáz (Cuba), Jorge Pineda (Dominican Republic), and Allora & Calzadilla (Puerto Rico).