Global Caribbean Exhibit at Little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami. Photo: CAW Magazine

In the seven years that Art Basel has been in Miami Beach, Florida, this was the first time a Caribbean art show was included in its official program. Global Caribbean, curated by Edouard Duval-Carrié, opened on December 4, 2009, at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, a brand new facility that promotes Afro Caribbean cultural events in Little Haiti, Miami.

According to the organizers, the opening was a success and was well attended by important people in the art world. As Edouard Duval-Carrié says, "It was a big step forward for Caribbean Art."

On December 5th, Global Caribbean continued with an informal panel to discuss Caribbean art-related topics. The panel included Ducal-Carrié and a few of the artists and writers involved in the project. The audience was a mix of Caribbean artists, gallery directors, art educators, writers, art dealers, and the general public.

The conversations went from discussing the main reasons why Caribbean art is not internationally recognized, to why most of the world know little about contemporary Caribbean art, to how to solve the lack of investments and infrastructure that would allow the art from the region to get the recognition it deserves, and to the lack of a cohesive Caribbean art market.

Erica James, Art Critic and Director of the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, offered an example to illustrate how unknown Caribbean art is. She explained: "I remember an author from Art in America magazine saying, 'Fine art doesn't come from the Bahamas. How do you exist?' It just makes you realize where we are and the kind of work we have to do. I love art, and I feel that we don't look at the art enough anymore."

The Art Education Gap

The audience largely agreed that there is a gap in art education in the Caribbean. And this reduces the likelihood that Caribbean art can compete in the larger art world. Those in attendance also pointed to the importance of having educated artists, as well as educated art consumers, a public that is able to distinguish fine art.

Patricia Saunders, professor of visual art, literature, and cultural studies at the University of Miami, said: "I see brilliant art produced across the region, but if you don't have the audience that even understands how to engage it, there is a massive gap."

Patricia gave an example of Trinidadian medical students who used to take art classes to complement their study. The result of this exposure to art was a higher interest and appreciation for the arts. When the students become doctors, they would visit galleries and purchase art. Now, she says, "Art students study art and science students study only science." Patricia concluded, "The people who eventually have enough money to buy art suffer from the same problem. They don't have enough visual literacy."

Edouard Duval-Carrié places the accent on the artists' education, saying that the Carribbean countries, except for Cuba, did not invest enough in art schools.

Our own people don't buy art

The Caribbean art market was an issue that could not be overlooked in this conversation, due to its importance.

Ludlow Bailey, an art curator, broker and art critic from St. Thomas, pointed out that Caribbean Art is marginalized when it comes to the market itself. He says, "You've got a lot of great artists working in the Caribbean, and the market knows some of them. But they are not getting the same evaluation."

He also mentioned the fact that people in the Caribbean are not used to buying art. "I live in St. Thomas. It is not an important art market. There are people who buy art because there are a lot of wealthy people who go there. But the population of St. Thomas isn't in the culture of collecting art or celebrating art. We have to do something about the market, because I think the Caribbean is by far the most dynamic culture in the world."

Annie Paul, head of publications at the University of West Indies, Jamaica, in the same context shares: "When Jamaican artists complain about invisibility I often say it is their own fault, because they view the National Gallery of Jamaica as the apex of everything to aim towards. Ultimately, all of that is very self-defying. Because if you want to be in the mainstream, you need to be very open of what's going on outside."

She highlights the success story of Indian Art, which owes its development and growth to the Indian diaspora who started buying the art and transforming the whole art market. "The problem for Caribbean art is that it doesn't have that wealthy class. And even though there are a few collectors, they don't necessarily buy fine art," points Annie. She continues: "For instance in Jamaica, the wealthy elite only buy Jamaican art, and only by very old artists, established or dead artists. So there is no investment in the young emerging artists. We constantly say that the mainstream is ignoring us, but we have to solve these problems within our countries first."

In looking at Caribbean Art, the approach to collecting art must be an educated one, well defined, with a wider scope as compared to the usually "narrow" selection of artists from one's own country. Annie explained, "The elite only invest in Blue Chip investments that are authorized by the National Gallery of Jamaica; however, the National Gallery has had the same curator for 34-35 years. It's too narrow. We need to do that work, we need to reform the infrastructures within our countries. And our elite needs to be more educated about what art is, and about what the various forms of art are. I am constantly trying to argue that our rich buyers should also be buying Caribbean work, not just the art from their own countries."

Some people acknowledged that the Governments of the Caribbean countries do not provide enough support for the arts. Annie Paul had this explanation: "Art is very important to the development of the people. Governments don't invest in art because it makes no difference to the votes. Governments would rather invest in sports because masses of people go to sports events. Very few people go to art galleries."

Media Distortions and Misrepresentations of Caribbean Art

The way some American media describes Caribbean Art was an issue brought to the table by Nicole Awai, one of the artist participating in the Global Caribbean exhibit. She said that some American media, in some instances, tend to associate Caribbean Art with colonial art. And they bring into the context the slavery and colonial history of the Caribbean, instead of just appreciating the art itself.

She said: "While we are trying to get passed these stereotypes, what is easy for them (the public) to access are some of these played out themes that don't necessarily have anything to do with us."

"That's a battle and we should have more of these shows. We have to be very clear on context. We have 21st century Caribbean artists influencing contemporary art who, according to where they went, got collapsed into other people's identities, according to where they went, they didn't feel safe to say that they were Caribbean. That is our challenge." ended Nicole.

Cuba - an Exception-al Example

Cuba was heavily used as an example for the rest of the Caribbean, and as an exception in terms of the recognition it receives in the Art World for its art, despite the U.S. embargo. After a long debate, Cuba seemed to have gathered the winning arguments: great art schools, better market, wonderful art events that promote Cuban Art.

Edouard Duval-Carrié noted that Cuba invested in schools. "They do have the infrastructure and facilities given to the artists...They are producing artists in batches every year."

Marcel Wah, Haitian-American artist and Director of the International Caribbean Art Fair (ICAFair), points to the fact that Cuba has the added benefit of being promoted under the umbrella of Latin American art, which is not struggling for recognition as much as the Caribbean is. Therefore, it enjoys a more robust and profitable art market." He said: "The reason why Cuban evaluation is so much higher, while the Caribbean tends to be marginalized, is because Cuba is pulled in the Latin American art market and is represented at the major auction houses."

We are Caribbean!

"Should we classify our work as Caribbean?" was a question raised by the artists. Some artists prefer not to mention that they are from the Caribbean. Others just want to be appreciated for their work rather than the region they came from.

While Nicole Awai indicated that it should not matter where you are from, Annie Paul offered a different point of view. She said: "If you think about the different conversations going on around the world, do we want to participate in those conversations? So, it's not that we are trying to set up a Caribbean conversation, but do artists from the Caribbean have anything to contribute to those conversations that are going on globally? If we have something valuable to say, people will take notice. And it's not that we are from the Caribbean necessarily. But the problem is that we don't do that. We just remain outside...There are artists who don't want to be considered Caribbean, but when you think about the conversation going on internationally, wouldn't what we have to say be inflected by where we live, what we do, and the experiences that we have. That would be our contribution."

According to the panel, the world has something to learn from the Caribbean, being that it is such a multicultural region.

The next conquered territory is going to be the Caribbean

The opening of Global Caribbean drew a large crowd and interests. Ilana Vardy, former director of Art Miami, a well-known art fair, shared some of her insights regarding the art world in relation to Caribbean Art. Ilana believes, "If there are dealers coming to events like this (Global Caribbean), I can see that they are looking for new artists. Because the next conquered territory will be the Caribbean. Right now it's India, but the next territory has to be the Caribbean, because it hasn't been exploited by the international market in the way that China was a few years ago. Now it's India and South Asia. It's always a trend in the market. I see that once the artists sort of reaches acceptance and are collected, they no longer want to be called Caribbean. They are just mainstream artists. But until you get to that point, where you are recognized as a collected artist, then you have to be from somewhere. Latin America has only now reached this point where they are collected by a non-Latin American market. It's taking years and years. And now you find Latin American art fairs like Pinta in New York and others. It's this weird cycle. People have to be from somewhere to be collected by the collectors. And they make up a tiny, tiny portion of the world...If this were in one of the Art Bazel conversations then you've made it!"

Some remarks that followed

Erica James: "There is a lot of work we have to do. There are things that have to happen all at the same time: We have to be working with the market, we have to be working with education, we have to be working with the institutions because they are incredibly important, and we have to understand our whole complexity--that Europe is in the Caribbean, and Africans are in the Caribbean, everything is in the Caribbean."

Edouard Duval-Carrié: "That's the word: complexity. If we can convince people that we are complex, then we've managed to do most of what we could. Because we are viewed as simpletons. This is outrageous."

Patricia Saunders: "Artists come to the Caribbean when they run out of ideas. They engage the landscape, the art, in search of new inspiration. The world is trying to come to terms with what has been from the Caribbean...not the other way around."

About Global Caribbean

Global Caribbean is a major project launched by Caraibes en Création, a new program of Culturesfrance, the French Government agency for international cultural exchanges. The exhibit showcases contemporary artists from the Caribbean.

Exhibiting artists are:

Alexandre Arrechea (Cuba), Nicole Awai (Trinidad), Jean-Francois Boclé (Martinique), Alex Burke (Martinique), Charles Campbell (Jamaica), Keisha Castello (Jamaica), Christopher Cozier (Trinidad), Blue Curry (Bahamas), David Damoison (Martinique), Roberto Diago (Cuba), André Eugène (Haiti), Joelle Ferly (Guadeloupe), Kendra Frorup (Bahamas), Joscelyn Gardner (Barbados), Marlon Griffith (Trinidad), Hew Locke (Guyana), Melvin Martinez (Puerto Rico), Raquel Paiewonsky (Dominican Republic), Gustavo Peña (Dominican Republic), Vickie Pierre (Haiti), Jorge Pineda (Dominican Republic), Betty Rosado (Puerto Rico), and Arthur Simms (Jamaica).

The exhibition will run until March 3, 2010, at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, 260 NE 59th Street, Miami, Florida. For more information call 305-960-2969.