“Minnis Rolle is no stranger to tourism. In addition to her art practice, she works as a curator and gallery manager at TERN Gallery in Nassau, located on the grounds of a boutique hotel. The Bahamas, in particular its capital, Nassau, is one of the proverbial birthplaces of tourism as an industry in the Caribbean. Tourism isn’t just something Bahamians engage in for a living. Much of the semiotics and identifiers associated with the culture come deeply intertwined with the history of tourism in The Bahamas itself. The conception of the nation as a picturesque destination is so embedded in the local consciousness that the line between what is tourism product and what is culture becomes troublingly blurry. She remains vocal about the myriad ways that tourism has had a profound influence on Bahamian identity and self-understanding since the industry’s inception.”

Faceless gray and white figures writhing, rolling, or relaxed in contrapposto. The liminal beings and suspended scenes in the work of Dominique Hunter act as avatars, a self-portrait, and an Eden for the yearning, heaving imaginary. She inserts fragmented parts of herself into the mixed media works: a slender feminine figure, portions of melanated skin, the visible signs of a maker slumped or draped over a desk. Hunter’s displaced depictions of self speak to the demographic of Caribbean creatives committed to living in motherlands that can feel like “otherlands,” specifically spaces of colonially rooted othering.² As an artist living and working in Guyana, Hunter must contend with the social pressures and barriers to access that can often come with choosing to build a practice locally, within the region. This is no small task when the dominant paradigm in your local space assumes that as an artist one must move into the diaspora to find professional and creative success. Further, Hunter has had to endure the skepticism at choosing to return home after studying abroad—an experience we both share and have admittedly commiserated over as creative practitioners trying to make art and culture work sustainable in our home spaces. Her work is for those who bear the weight of remaining. 

“Invoking feelings of yearning, compassion, and tenderness, Trinidadian artist Rodell Warner’s Fictions More Precious, curated by Coka Treviño, at Big Medium in Austin, TX, also brings up spirits, specters, and wonder. Part of his work presented as the 2023 Tito’s Prize recipient, the exhibition builds on Warner’s digital excavations, experimentations, and conjurations around the problematics of the colonial archive in the Caribbean. With apparitions floating in mid-air, and conceptualized ghosts in the proverbial AI machine—this offering of images of ancestors passed and imagined at Big Medium feels apt in title, location, and intention.”