Lavar Munroe’s installation “INVASION” is his second solo exhibition in the Bahamas. The artist, who was born in Nassau in 1982 currently lives and works in North Carolina.
For his solo exhibition, Lavar Munroe deconstructs the 500 year old myth glorifying Christopher Columbus in the Bahamas in his exhibit INVASION, demonstrating that art can transcend historical, cultural, anthropological, and psycho-social analyses.
Fusing aspects of modernism, and motifs indigenous to the Bahamas, Munroe presents in INVASION an inventive creative visual vocabulary, original style and symbolism to create a narrative in contrast to the traditional misrepresentations.
Using his own visual vocabulary, he depicts the inhumanity of Columbus’ incursion into the islands, expands the viewers’ consciousness by unraveling a controversial, sacrosanct theme with a ruggedly independent mind. He dispels the glorification of Columbus, and shows his horrific exploitation of enslaved natives of the Bahamas as well as Africans imported to the islands.
In INVASION, Munroe creates images of peoples who inhabited the Bahamas when Columbus and his sailors arrived, as well as scenes from the period of the colonization using interconnected, interrelated iconographies. He makes us see what we have not seen by declarative visual power.
The installation will be comprised of mostly mixed media drawing where the artist fuses urban, traditional and contemporary art making processes to make a cohesive narrative.
Appointments are welcomed June 29 –July 5. Invasion exhibit opens to the public Wednesday 6th July 2011 at 6pm at Popopstudios, 26 Dunmore Ave. Chippingham, Nassau Bahamas.
For further information about the INVASION exhibit, or to set up a preview of works, contact Lavar Munroe at (242) 323 6393
