Art News | NADA New York

 

 

Hailing from Saint Croix, Forgotten Lands is making its NADA debut with a two-hander of artists that exemplify the gallery’s program, which often explores Caribbean identity and subjectivity, according to curator and sales manager Azi Jones. The paintings by Green, who was born in Jamaica and is now based in Massachusetts, blend Surrealism, Cubism, and figuration to depict people mid-transition, often leaping into the sea. Green’s figures resist easy categorization, often blurring beyond recognition or melting into the highly stylized backgrounds that recall a color negative.

 

These paintings are paired with architectural works that transform the breeze block, a typically concrete block used in Carribbean architecture, into sculptures made from “heirloom fabrics,” the artist’s description of materials that come from the personal collections of his mother and grandmother. Those blocks are core symbols of the visual vernacular across the Carribbean, used for their durability, resilience, and temperature regulating properties. Here, layered with paint, paper, netting, and other found materials, they become vessels of personal and collective history.