The Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival (TTFF) is excited to announce this year’s festival artist, Trinidad and Tobago painter Che Lovelace. Lovelace’s work will appear on the TTFF/22 poster, our print guide, buttons and festival signage.
His vivid representations of Trinidad and Tobago life, culture and landscape demonstrate an intimate knowledge of – and passion for – our country, which we share and celebrate each year during the Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival. In previous years, the festival has worked with visual artists Christopher Cozier, Eddie Bowen, Peter Doig, Sheena Rose, Mark King, Sabrina Charran and Di-Andre Caprice Davis.
Based in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Che Lovelace’s art is largely inspired by his experience living and working in Trinidad and Tobago. His paintings are presented in a vibrant variety of colors—acrylic and dry pigment—on composite board panels. They focus on descriptions of the dense and highly charged layers of the Trinidadian landscape that Lovelace sees as physical, social and spiritual. The subjects of his paintings ebb and flow freely between the streets of Port of Spain, natural rural vegetation, the human form and the interior of his studio. His practice increasingly includes elements of performance which he absorbs into his painting process.
All pImages taken from Che’s Instagram page. Link: https://www.instagram.com/chelovelace/
Lovelace’s work has been exhibited widely, including recent solo shows at Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, USA (2021); Various Small Fires, Seoul, Korea (2022) and Eric Hussenout Gallery, Paris, France. Recent group exhibitions include: “The Natural World Part II” at Alexander Berggruen, New York, USA (2022); “Accommodation Breakpoint” in Almine Rech, Brussels, Belgium (2021); “Rise, Rise Now” at Somerset House, London, UK (2019); and “Pollution: A Continuing History” at Galerie Sebastien Bertrand, Geneva, Switzerland (2019).
Che Lovelace (on the left) was born in 1969 in San Fernando, Trinidad and grew up in the East Coast village of Matura. He attended the Queen’s Royal College, Port of Spain and received his fine art training at l’Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts de la Martinique.
He has been a key collaborator in several art, carnival and entertainment projects, including Studiofilmclub and Friends For The Road J’Ouvert, a traditional carnival project. Lovelace currently lectures at the University of the West Indies St Augustine, Department of Creative and Festival Arts.
Portrait of the artist by Brendan Delzin.
You can learn more about Che and his work by following his beautiful Instagram account @chelovelace and read on Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival (TTFF) interview with him here!
