The Global / Borderless Caribbean celebrates the 12th anniversary of this exhibition series with Local Global, a contemporary art exhibition. Local Global focuses on the specificity of Miami as a central point of geographic interest and confluence in the Global South. This exhibition features a selection of Miami-based artists that represent the multiplicity of histories and nationalities that define the region and connect it to the Caribbean. The locality of Miami and South Florida is the guiding thematic that forms the thread of connection and inspires the work produced by the selected artists of Afro-Caribbean and African descent. In this exhibition, I aim to contribute to the ongoing narrative that explores how a region influences artistic production, and conversely, how multi-generational waves of artists of Afro-Caribbean and African descent have changed the cultural landscape. In South Florida, the western documented presence of Africans goes as far back to the 1500’s when both free and enslaved Africans were members of colonial expeditions to “La Florida”. The Afro-diasporic presence and influence in our region are only now beginning to receive greater attention and research by Euro-centric academia as scholars begin to recognize how narrow the canon of history has trained its focus. In the same vein, the canon of art history has yet to fully delve into the influence of the Caribbean and Africa on artistic production in the Global South. This exhibition is but a small part of a much larger cultural history of artistic production that deserves to be studied and shared, and it is from this history, passed down through the generations that Local Global, the exhibition, has been born. The unique and specific beauty of what it means to be “local” is explored in this exhibition through the work of artists that represent over seven Caribbean islands, a cross-section of the African continent, and over 50 years of cultural practice and investment in the contributions to our region. The artists in this exhibition have created work that, when brought together, form a visually rich environment that mirrors the flowing currents of the waters that have carried people through this region for centuries. In the year 2020, this moment in history has marked our world, and also each of us individually, so that we can now look to this idea of “local-global” as another way to understand the “personal and collective”. What makes us each distinctly unique, is also what has the power to bring us together. Our experiences and intertwining histories, too complicated to unwind, have led us to this present moment that we must now decipher through the images and narratives living deep within us. Artists channel this ability to decipher these long-buried narratives – they share our stories with us, so that we may recognize ourselves in the past, and also in the future. Sculpture, photography, paint and collage become portals to our hearts and our histories. We can see our family members, neighborhoods, and homes – the ones we now call home – and the ones we left – layered within the selected works. Local Global, in its very essence, shares through the context of work presented, in the geographic heart of Little Haiti, Miami, how our “local” is truly “global”.
Artists: Adrienne Chadwick, Annick Duvivier, Asser Saint-Val, Carl-Philippe Juste, Charo Oquet, Christopher Carter, Corinne Stevie, Ezekiel Binns, Francisco Maso, Gaalo, Geovanna Gonzalez, Isaie “Zeek” Mathias, Johnnie Bess, Laeti, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, Marcus Blake/Mdotblake, Mark Fleuridor, Michelle Lisa Polissaint, Morel Doucet, Najja Moon, Onajide Shabaka, Patrick de Castro, Sonia Báez-Hernández, Sophia Lacroix, Stephen Arboite, Turgo Bastien, Vanessa Charlot, Vernando Reuben, Vickie Pierre, and Yanira Collado.
Choreography # 02, 2020. Installation (photography, paint, and drawing on wood panel). 96 x 96 in. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Martian Tuaty.