MCA Chicago presents Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today

The 1990s were a time of great social, political, and economic change. The decade’s large-scale developments ushered in an era of international connection and social upheaval, from the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc to the growth of transnational trade accords. In the cultural sector, art exhibitions increased and became global, and discourses about identity, particularly among people who have experienced institutional oppression, took center stage in cultural debates. The dynamics of this pivotal decade also had a significant impact on the production, dissemination, and display of Caribbean art.

Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s-2000s uses the 1990s as its cultural backdrop. Today marks the opening of the first large group show in the United States that envisions a new approach to contemporary art in the Caribbean diaspora, emphasizing forms that reveal new ways of thinking about identity and place. It employs the metaphor of weather and its ever-changing forms to examine artistic activities associated with the Caribbean, viewing the region as a forerunner of our swiftly changing times.

The exhibition is curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator, with Iris Colburn, Curatorial Assistant, Isabel Casso, former Susman Curatorial Fellow, and Nolan Jimbo, Susman Curatorial Fellow. It is accompanied by an expansive catalogue featuring scholarship as well as extensive plate sections reproducing exhibition artworks in full color. It includes essays authored by Carlos Garrido Castellano, Genevieve Hyacinthe, Aaron Kamugisha, and Mayra Santos-Febres, as well as a roundtable conversation with Carla Acevedo-Yates, Christopher Cozier, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Teresita Fernández. The exhibition is designed by SKETCH / Johann Wolfschoon, Panamá.

November 19, 2–3:30pm
Roundtable discussion: On Thinking and Being Caribbean
What is the Caribbean? What does Caribbeanness mean to artists of the Caribbean diaspora?

Join Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator Carla Acevedo-Yates and artists Christopher Cozier, Teresita Fernández, and Mara Magdalena Campos-Pons for a roundtable conversation on the opening day of the MCA exhibition Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora 1990s-Today. Building on an in-depth conversation featured in the exhibition catalog, the curator and artists discuss the exhibition’s ideas, how they see themselves as artists, and how they work within particular constraints, frameworks, and systems of the art world.