DENVER – For centuries, the people of the Caribbean have found themselves in a precarious position: Do we leave our homes by force, or do we stay on the islands to await freedom that may never come? Upon our arrival on the mainland, many of us tried to emulate our island communities as we lived in predominantly Puerto Rican/Cuban neighborhoods on the East Coast. I found myself living in Denver wondering, where are the Caribbean artists?
Through word of mouth and focused research, I connected with Lares Feliciano, Ramón Bonilla, Diego Rodriguez-Warner, and Viktor El-Saieh to explore not only their work, but the possibility that they, too, were seeking an artistic community of Caribbean at Mile. The High City.
Lares Feliciano, an interdisciplinary mixed-race artist and cultural worker, uses animation, installation, and collage to create worlds where marginalized experiences are front and center. “The intentional consequence of colonialism is to spread us apart so that we don’t find each other and are isolated,” she says. “So it’s no surprise that it’s hard, but here we are!”
Feliciano is developing a project titled diasporic – by interviewing Puerto Ricans across Colorado, she hopes to understand the breadth of community that is accessible for future endeavors and exhibits. “The nature of the relationship that the United States has with [Caribbean] islands make me feel like it’s urgent to get our story out. It has always been urgent, but many on the continent do not understand who we are, what our history is, our culture, what we have been through and what we continue to go through.”
Ramón Bonilla is a Denver-based artist with a BFA from Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de San Juan, Puerto Rico, whose artwork examines the concept of place through landscape and architecture integrating a core approach to minimalism, geometry, brutalism and low. – poly art.
Bonilla assured me, “Building community among Denver-based Caribbean artists can help gain access to opportunities and resources as a group. More importantly, a joint effort can also allow this creative community to create a visible presence in the area that can be used to educate others about identity, art, history and culture related to the Caribbean experience.
Only recently has Bonilla become aware of other Caribbean artists or of Caribbean heritage in the Denver area. “Conversations and collaboration are necessary to bridge the gaps that exist within this creative community and also with their potential audiences,” he says.
For Latin American mixed media artist Diego Rodriguez-Warner, whose work combines printmaking, collage and painting, resulting in compositions of overlapping figurative forms (his exhibition Iterative at the Rule Gallery running from August 4th to September 17th), the community is more of a solitary endeavor. “Every time I try to get involved [in the community], it always seems like there’s an expectation that I’m something I’m not.” Rodriguez-Warner’s work shows the tension and inner turmoil caused by the juxtaposition between community and personal identity.
“I feel, in a sense, that there’s a vibrating contradiction within my work,” he says, “There’s a disagreement and argument within myself about which of these things is the ‘real self’ and which one to lean towards. I’ve always become and more comfortable with contradiction.” For many artists, the community of one is not only understandable, but necessary.
Other artists find that their work is inseparable from the distinctive Caribbean style, but wonder if one fits the Denver market. For example, artist Victor El-Saieh’s work draws on the folklore, myths, traditions, and political leaders that shape Haitian culture. “I curated an introduction to contemporary Haitian art at a local gallery because I wasn’t sure if Haitian art had context here. It was a really great experience overall and everyone who came was really engaged with the work, but Denver ended up being more of a quiet place to work for me. Not so much where I show my work because there just doesn’t seem to be an audience for it.”
How can Caribbean artists thrive if the market does not see their work as valuable? Although the work can bridge gaps and cross divides, is it something the Denver art scene wants to engage with as well?
While there is no manual for how Caribbean artists can build community, nor will everyone agree on its definition, there are several opportunities for increased visibility, new discussions, and potential change. For example, RedLine’s 48-Hour Socially Engaged Art and Conversation Summit 2022–23 Radical Roots, may provide an ideal starting point. The free, two-day annual event aims to engage in conversations about “cultural accountability, social responsibility and collective leadership,” as the program description explains. Hopefully, Caribbean artists in Denver will answer the call, expanding the waves of opportunity that are already beginning to spread.
