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Press Release:

We are proud to announce the fourth edition of the Global Caribbean project at the Little Haiti Cultural Center and this year we are delighted to partner with the Fondation Clement of Martinique, the Green Family Foundation, the Little Haiti Cultural Center and the Institut Francais to present a roster of contemporary artists from the French West Indies and Guyana.

The Global Caribbean project inserts itself in an initiative launched by the Institut Francais’s program called “Caraibes en Creation” which was established by this French Government agency to promote the Caribbean contemporary artistic expression. This fourth edition entitled Global Caribbean IV: French West Indies & Guyana, Focus on the Contemporary Expression will present fourteen artists of the French Caribbean.  We have partnered with the very prestigious Fondation Clement of Martinique which has been a staunch promoter of Caribbean artistic expression and in particular the overseas French departments. Their seat in Martinique is shared by a Rhum distillery, which hails back centuries. They have actively presented artists from the region and promoted them internationally thus for them to present these artists during the festivities surrounding Art Basel Miami was a normal course of event, since their activities seldom brings them to our shores.

Artist / curator Edouard Duval Carrie was asked to organize this project, make the selection of artists as well as the contributing authors for the catalogue that will be produced alongside this exhibit. 

Selected artists for this exhibit are:

•          Ano alias Eddy Firmin
•          Christian Bertin
•          Ernest Breleur
•          Jean Marc Hunt
•          Thierry Jarrin
•          Valérie John
•          Louis Laouchez
•          Mirtho Linguet
•          Christophe Mert
•          Bruno Pédurand
•          Luz Severino
•          Philippe Thomarel
•          Thierry Tian-Sio-Po
•          Laurent Valère

The contributing authors are M. Gerry L’Etang, eminent scholar and anthropologist will address the historical context in which the French Antilles’s artistic expression has evolved; Mme. Renée-Paule Yung-Hing, ardent art promoter as well as member of the regional council of Martinique will address the modern artistic problematic of the region; Mme. Dominique Brebion, contemporary art critic, who has been mounting exhibits hailing from the region will give us her assessment of the artists presented in this selection. Mr. Duval Carrie will also give his point of view.

The exhibit will open to the public on the morning of December 7^th, 2012. It will be part of the Art Basel program and will end February 16^th, 2013. On the opening day, a panel discussion with the authors and artists present will be also held at the LHCC where the exhibit will take place.

To complement this exhibit, artist / curator Duval Carrie has partnered with the Green Family Foundation through its director Ms. Kimberly Green, who’s general interest in the Caribbean and its artistic expression is more than evident. By bringing forward legendary American folklorist Alan Lomax archives, in particular the ones covering the French Antilles, a larger context will be established to assess the particularity of the region through its musical legacy. A sampler of Mr. Lomax’s musical recordings from the 60’s and other documents from the region will highlight the deep historical legacy shared not only by the French Antilles but the Caribbean basin as a whole. A legacy that has also permeated the continental United States in particular the South Florida. Ms. Kimberly Green will also contribute a text to the catalogue.

We hope that with this exhibit, this very beautiful region of the Caribbean with its rich African and French overtones will, for many, be a discovery and revelation of a rather complex and dynamic section of this fascinating archipelago.