A new exhibition at the 黑料不打烊 Art Museum that challenges visitors to view the 鈥渢ropics鈥 as both place and perception is on view through May 10, 2025. “Joiri Minaya: Unseeing the Tropics at the Museum” features artworks by Joiri Minaya, a Dominican-United Statesian artist, and objects from the 黑料不打烊 Art Museum collection. Curated by Cristina E. Pardo Porto, assistant professor of Latinx literatures and cultures in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, this exhibition brings together artworks that encourage reconsideration of the historical and contemporary misrepresentations that shape our perceptions of tropical regions.
Installation view of “Joiri Minaya: Unseeing the Tropics at the Museum”
鈥淲e are thrilled to host Joiri Minaya鈥檚 work at the museum in conversation with the permanent collection,鈥 says museum Director Emily Dittman. 鈥淗er work invites visitors to examine their notions of the ‘tropics’ as well as expand that to thinking more broadly. We hope that this critical examination will provide a platform for conversations at the museum as well as in the community.鈥
When thinking of the 鈥渢ropics,鈥 the Caribbeans islands often come to mind. Palm-fringed horizons, sweeping ocean views and pristine beaches have become a visual shorthand for 鈥渢ropicality鈥 and suggest landscapes that are idyllic, untouched paradises.
The idea of the 鈥渢ropics鈥 dates to the 15th century, when Spanish and Anglo-European explorers and writers, and later, in the 19th century, photographers represented these regions as virgin paradises or dangerous territories, inhabited by peoples perceived as 鈥減rimitive.鈥 This framework has reduced the 鈥渢ropics鈥 to a narrow set of images that have shaped colonial legacies and commercial interests. “Joiri Minaya: Unseeing the Tropics at the Museum” challenges this idea. It encourages reconsideration of the historical and contemporary misrepresentations that shape our perceptions of tropical regions. By juxtaposing Minaya鈥檚 work, including video, installation, and photography, with 20th-century artworks from the museum鈥檚 collection, the exhibition invites an 鈥渦nseeing鈥 of the tropics.
The interpretive text in the exhibition is bilingual, providing both English and Spanish text for visitors. Support for this exhibition is provided by Centro de Estudio Hisp谩nicos; Latino-Latin American Studies; and the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences; and the Program on Latin America and The Caribbean (PLACA) in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
Joiri Minaya (born 1990) is a Dominican-United Statesian multidisciplinary artist whose recent works focus on destabilizing historic and contemporary representations of an imagined tropical identity. Minaya attended the Escuela Nacional de Artes Visuales in Santo Domingo (2009), Altos de Chav贸n School of Design (2011) and Parsons the New School for Design (2013). She has participated in residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Guttenberg Arts, Smack Mellon, the Bronx Museum鈥檚 AIM Program and the NYFA Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists, Red Bull House of Art, the Lower East Side Printshop, ISCP, Art Omi, Vermont Studio Center, New Wave, Silver Art Projects and Fountainhead.
She has received awards, fellowships and grants from New York State Council on the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts, Jerome Hill, Artadia, the BRIC鈥檚 Colene Brown Art Prize, Socrates Sculpture Park, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation and the Nancy Graves Foundation, among other organizations. Minaya鈥檚 work is in the collections of the Santo Domingo Museo de Arte Moderno, the Centro Le贸n Jim茅nes, the Kemper Museum, El Museo del Barrio and several private collections.
On Opacity: Gallery Talk with Artist Joiri Minaya
March 18, 4:30 p.m., reception to follow
黑料不打烊 Art Museum
Lines of Flight: Screening + Q&A with Miryam Charles and Joiri Minaya
March 20, 6:30 p.m.
Presented by Light Work
Watson Theater, 316 Waverly Ave.
Community Day
March 29, noon-4 p.m.
黑料不打烊 Art Museum
Visit the museum鈥檚 website for more public programs surrounding the exhibition.
