In Conversation with Caribbean Fine Art Fair Executive Director Anderson M. Pilgrim

The Caribbean Fine Art Fair celebrates the important contribution of Caribbean visual artists and the increasingly significant role the region’s art is playing in the international art arena. It is a curated exposition showcasing paintings, photography, sculpture, and drawings by art galleries, institutions, and individual artists. I had the opportunity of catching up with its Executive Director  Anderson M. Pilgrim to delve further into the uniqueness of this initiative and its standing on a global stage. In addition to this interview, please visit our recent Occhi podcast, where we discuss art and artists from the diaspora.

You have a strong business management and marketing background. How did you get involved specifically in curating international art events?

When I was finishing up my undergraduate degree at Baruch College, CUNY, I read about the Caribbean Visions art exhibit which was coming to Brooklyn Museum (around 1990) and would travel to a total of 4 museums in the US. It was the first comprehensive art exhibit featuring artists from the Caribbean that I ever experienced, in a US museum environment. The curator was Samella Lewis and the exhibit assistant was then Ph.D. student Gloria Gordon from Trinidad, who eventually taught me a great deal about the world of art. The exhibition sparked my reading and research about Caribbean visual art. I studied business management and marketing with the view of working with artisans in the Caribbean, to market their products in the international gift market at the time. But I was also thinking of representing visual artists, many of whom I believed had marvelous artistic talent but could use some assistance in managing their business and opportunities.

Please tell our readers more about the Caribbean Fine Art Fair and how it differs from other international art fairs?

Caribbean Fine Art Fair is really geared to showcasing individual artists and small thematic exhibits. There is no real gallery system in the Caribbean and, even though more Caribbean talents are attracting international gallery representation, it is not an opportunity open to many. The CaFA Fair becomes that opportunity to be viewed by a wider group of collectors, but also people in the business such as galleries and institutional curators.

You’re also the President and Co-founder of Diaspora Now. Please share with us its aims and objectives?

Diaspora Now Inc. was launched in 1996 to represent artists and artisans from the Caribbean and the Diaspora, as well as produce events and exhibits featuring many of these artists. I believed that there was a space for such a concept working with people of color who were totally underrepresented in the marketplace.

There is a growing interest from American and European institutes in artists of the diaspora. What do you think has contributed to this growth?

Well, you know I always thought it was a just matter of time. With the ascent of African American art in the 1990s, then Contemporary African art, as well as the Latin American art’s tremendous growth in the art market, I knew that eventually, our region would begin to receive more notice, especially since many artists recognized in the previously mentioned categories are of Caribbean origins. Many of their motivations and inspirations are similar and, with many more media platforms offering exposure, the opportunities to be seen are numerous. I would say that people like myself and many others have been working to present Caribbean artists to the world, providing materials for study, etc. and there is now a significant amount of scholarship on the art of the Caribbean.

How influential do you feel art and artists from the Caribbean diaspora will be on the wider industry now that, in theory at least, they have greater access to global markets?

It’s a new experience, but I think the Caribbean diaspora has the ability to make a tremendous contribution to the worlds of international art and fashion, as they have to the world of music. Artists like Basquiat and more recently Sir Frank Bowling are at the top of the art market. Individuals continue to break through and what is encouraging is that they don’t necessarily have to emigrate to a first world country to do it. The players in the industry are visiting the region and engaging themselves.

From your experience, have the social, political, and economic events of 2020 encouraged artists from the diaspora to approach their practice differently.

I think everyone has had to. Like most artists of color in the Caribbean, they would have a visceral response to the Black Lives Matter movement as well as the worldwide pandemic. The shutdowns which have taken effect worldwide may have allowed artists to focus more on their work in the studio, commit more time conducting research, or just having more time to create. Everyone has had to pivot and adjust so the virtual world is now where the visual arts have turned, the world of technology. It’s another catalyst for those with a creative mind.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m working on  ‘Social Reckoning – eMeLe-K’,  co-curated with Alexis Mendoza at Abrazo Interno Gallery.  On view since December 15th, 2020, the featured artists are Carla Armour, Diogenes Ballester, Tanda Francis, Michael Kelly Williams, Ademola Olugebefola, and TAFA.

We will be at Nelson Tamayo Gallery at Teatro LATEA,  on view from this week with Nelson Álvarez, Ed Andrade, Diego Anaya, Pablo Caviedes, Wildriana de Jesús Paulino, Franck de las Mercedes, Darwin Erazo, Alex “Fdez” Fernández, Julia Justo, Rafaela Luna, Yani Monzón, Naivy Pérez, Moses Ros, Luis Stephenberg, and José Luis Tejada.

The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center is joining Teatro LATEA to commemorate Reverend King by supporting this fourth edition of eMeLe-K.

LATEA’s ‘Afro Latin Thing’ consists of a multidisciplinary series of streamed events from Monday, January 14th to Saturday, January 19, 2020. Once again guest curators and artists will creatively and artistically focus on Afro America’s vast cultural heritage from an Afro-Latin perspective.

This year the project will be further enriched by a special Univision initiative “Comienza en Casa” campaign. On the 52nd anniversary of his death, the spirit, the commitment, and the dynamism of Martin Luther King Jr. are needed more than ever. Inspired cultural experiences can demonstrate to diverse communities how we are all more similar than not. In that spirit, we present “Social Reckoning” for eMeLe-K @ Teatro LATEA, a visual arts exhibition taking place at Nelson Tamayo Gallery (LATEA) and the Abrazo Interno Gallery of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center at 107 Suffolk Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The 11th Edition of CaFA Fair Barbados – A Virtual Fair, is scheduled from March 10 – 24, 2021. Patrons will have full online access to artwork in a range of media from over 50 artists representing the Caribbean and the African Diaspora. We will engage the audience with exciting artwork and video contributions, as well as enhance our highlighted exhibitions with virtual panels and presentations.

Special events for 2021 will be held on the ground in Barbados. Seven (7) emerging Barbadian artists will exhibit at the Exchange Center Gallery, Bridgetown from March 10-24, 2021 curated by Zoe Osborne of Mahogany Culture. The 2nd Bridgetown International Arts Festival will present performing arts and fashion at the Courtney Blackman Grande Salle Inner Courtyard, Spry Street, Bridgetown on the weekend of March 19 – 21, 2021

Barbadian Art: Reflections on Emancipation (& Post-Colonial Society) is Scheduled for August/September 2021. This will feature 18 Barbadian artists in a multi-disciplinary exhibition curated by myself, Oneka Small, and Shane Eastmond at  Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts 10 Strand Street & 62 King Street, Frederiksted, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

Where can our readers find out more about you and your work?

You can visit our event website www.cafafair.com for constant updates, view artwork, information, and gifts at www.diaspora-now.com

Caribbean Fine Art (CaFA) Fair Barbados on Facebook and Linked In @cafafair on Instagram

Images courtesy of Anderson Pilgrim and CaFA, Main Photograph by Stephan Marshall 

 

 

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