Lavar Munroe: Sometime Come to Someplace

Lavar Munroe

Sometime Come to Someplace

Front cover: We Wish To Welcome You To Our Land, 2022 (detail)

Back cover: We People Of Flesh and Blood, 2023 (detail)

Lavar Munroe

Sometime Come to Someplace

February 3 - March 18, 2023

Essay by Jordia Benjamin

Introduction by Alyssa Brubaker

Designed by Megan Foy

Edited by Staci Boris

Photographed by Robert Chase Heishman This

Introduction by Alyssa Brubaker

Sometime Come To Someplace

Lavar Munroe is a Bahamian artist who works with acrylic and mixed media on unstretched canvas, often incorporating sentimental objects and materials such as beads, jewelry, ceramic tiles, glass, textiles, chicken hides, and feathers. His work is described as a hybrid medium between painting and relief sculpture and reflects the environment where he grew up in The Bahamas. Munroe was born in the impoverished, stigmatized and often marginalized Grants Town community in Nassau. In 2004, he moved to the United States at the age of 21. Drawing from memory and local folklore, Munroe’s work uses bold visual language to map a personal journey of trauma and survival.

In his new series, Munroe centers on their recent travel to Zimbabwe, exploring the cultural similarities between the Caribbean and southern Africa. Sometime Come to Someplace, a line spoken by Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, references the notion of a journey and feeling at home in a foreign place. Using the land of Oz as a conceptual framework, Munroe considers the parallels between both countries as places that are rich in social, political, and mythological histories. The artist’s material exploration and unique visual language viscerally captures his experience of late nights spent under the stars, conversing and dancing to the familiar sounds of steel drums around a crackling fire. Fire–often the night’s only source of light and heat–represents the collective energy of the subjects who have been brought together by the element, their bodies in musi-

cal harmony with the cosmos. The tonal hues of bright orange, pink and fire red are juxtaposed against the subdued color palette of green, gray, blue, and purple; a landscape influenced by the blackness of vast plateaus energetic with nocturnal wildlife.

In contrast to Munroe’s previous works, the paintings are contained within the confines of the canvas, like doorways which allow viewers to walk from one space to the next. For Munroe, home is here and elsewhere, an elusive double entity that is unbound yet inextricably linked to the uprooted self. Taken together, the works on view embody the journey, magic, love, and celebration of escape through fantastical and dreamlike imagery. Sometime Come to Someplace is a story about finding friendship away from home, courage, and human flourishing against the odds.

Essay

By Jordia Benjamin

Sometime Come to Someplace: The Pursuit of Home in the Absence of Time

By Jordia Benjamin

For Lavar Munroe, art is his journalistic exploration of the complexities of home and the physicality of it even when in a foreign place.

Throughout his travels, Munroe has seamlessly provided a visual lens of voyage and heroism. He dispels the othering of Black bodies and bridges cultural worlds. His ability to uplift and shift the complex narrative of the Black experience incorporates memories, past histories, and the potentialities of a mystical, utopian future as layered as his unstretched canvases.

Returning to Maryland post his 2022 summer residency at Emerald Hill Art Residency in Zimbabwe, Munroe embarked on Sometime Come to Someplace, a line pulled directly from the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In fact, all of the artwork titles are lines from the book. This body of work, inspired by his Zimbabwe travels, has strong ties to Munroe’s birthplace, The Bahamas, from a colonialistic perspective, commonwealth ties, indigenous symbolisms (water, fire, earth), and the use of ephemera objects: feathers, glass, beadwork, and jewelry. The pictorial settings of landscapes are at night, subjected to the dynamic and tropical elements. For the first time, Munroe features women figures as the main protagonists in Sometime Come To Someplace, 2022; You People With Hearts, 2022; and If Only We Walk Far Enough, 2022, in direct contrast to his earlier pieces of young Senegalese street boys.

This repositioning of a female lead is inspired by Dorothy Gale’s character in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Rooted in midwestern political allegory, the main character leads her band of misfits on an adventure using their known and/or unknown skills. They risk their lives to conquer and defeat an antagonist in order for Dorothy to return home. This may very well be the first time in fairy tale literature where a female protagonist does not suffer the fate of victimhood but uses her cleverness, persuasiveness, and heroics to achieve victory. Dorothy’s powerful characteristics may be due to the fact that

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’s author, L. Frank Baum, was an advocate for women’s rights and equity.1

As Dorothy finds herself in a strange new world, so does Munroe in Zimbabwe. Though both are far from home, elements exist that connect them to home. For Dorothy in her alternative world, her beloved Kansas family members are transformed into animal form. For Munroe, it’s the symbolic resemblance between Aunt Em and his own late maternal grand Aunt Ethel in Sometime Come To Someplace, 2022. In this painting, Aunt Ethel seems to be floating, suggested by the feathers and watery background, but somehow still remains grounded by the use of nails adorned in broken glass.

The superstitious breaking of glass represents seven years of loss or the renewal of life every seven years. In some cultures to ensure the latter, broken glass is buried in the moonlight or near a tombstone, as a means to conjure a peaceful journey into the other realm. The journey of time, as seen through Aunt Ethel’s watch, is motioned through the use of water, maybe as a means of cleansing for the afterlife; while the feather in her hand signals her good heart according to Egyptian mythology. Both aunts symbolically represent the northern star, a motherly figure guiding Dorothy and Munroe in their journey to a desired destination with the ability to open and close vortexes to parallel worlds (Kansas/Oz; Zimbabwe/The Bahamas).

In You People With Hearts, 2022, there is an undeniable choreography in the layering of materials, music, and the movement of figures. Between the two figures, fire is the barrier between the performer and the viewer. Here, the fire hypnotically lures the viewer into the painting, serving as a bit of entertainment, dancing for its audience. Similarly to Munroe’s cultural heritage, the many forms of song and dance are linked to the cultural history of Polynesia. Once rooted in warrior’s ceremonial processions, song, dance, and fire have evolved to be performed for a variety of social functions such as welcoming distinguished guests, celebration of achievements or occasions, and perhaps to entice Polynesian and Caribbean visitors.

1 Kheribek, Taymaa Hussein and Roza Awat Ezzat (2020). The Use and Symbolism of Animals in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Volume 4 Number 2, pp: 203-211. ISSN: 2580-8672, p. 209.

The emphasis on this touristic dependency is seen in We Wish To Welcome You To Our Land, 2022. We find two male figures in a face-off, one playing a mbira and the other playing three tonga drums. The act of playing these instruments is significant throughout the African Diaspora. These instruments and more are immersed in Caribbean music and dance. Reggae music is now widely played in Zimbabwe due to Bob Marley’s visit to the newly independent country in 1980.

Notwithstanding, The Commonwealth of the Bahamas, like all Caribbean countries, relies heavily on tourism to maintain the vibrancy of its economy. The Bahamas, through its cultural celebration of Junkanno, attracts thousands of visitors to its shores each year to experience its Boxing Day and New Year’s Day parades. The young male figures in We Wish To Welcome You To Our Land, are well dressed and structured like Junkanoo costumes (in contrast to the other free flowing figures in the rest of the series), which gives the impression that they are playing for an outsider audience.

In Munroe’s work, there is an excitement of material exploration. In Junkanoo, the saying is “go with what you got.”2 Pure joy is found just as much in the journey as it is the destination, somewhat correlating with Dorothy’s travels to Oz. Though intimidated by the unknown of a new place, she finds pleasure in the company of new characters, befriending them, forging strong bonds, finding a common goal, only to realize that home is where your heart lies.

Oz in a way becomes a part of Dorothy, or it amplifies who she was already. Perhaps this is Munroe’s intention, to encapsulate the whimsy, magic, and sometimes horror of life’s journey, with the inclination to our basic humanistic/animalistic urge to fight or to take flight.

The questions may be posed–will we welcome life with a curious heart, or will we continue to hide behind the heavy layers of

2 Arlene Nash Ferguson, Annual Heritage Month Lecture: The History of Junkanoo in The Bahamas; National Museum of Jamaica; Youtube channel 18

trauma disguising our true selves with the illusions of false narratives? Will we befriend and defeat or retreat into a silo?

It is through the joy of exploration where you find the artist’s most vulnerable and true self. Through his canvases, Munroe allows us to imagine possible futures through a Black and diasporic cultural lens.

“No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.” - Dorothy Gale3

Munroe’s ability to indicate the interconnectedness within each other allows us to be able to see ourselves in the other and find a true place of home despite location and time.

3 APA. Baum, L. F. (2010). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Oxford University Press. Chapter 4.

Installation views

Artworks

We People Of Flesh and Blood, 2023 acrylic, oil pastels, earrings, beads and feathers on canvas 42 x 50 in 106.7 x 127 cm

Land That I Heard Of Once in A Lullaby, 2023 acrylic, spray paint, oil pastels, hair beads, nylon rope, staples, blunt buds (roaches), marbles, carpet, synthetic flower, burnt canvas, pants and chicken feathers on unprimed canvas

68 x 86 in

172.7 x 218.4 cm

When All The World Is A Hopeless Jumble, 2023 acrylic, spray paint, oil pastel, earrings, and feathers on canvas 78

50 in 198.1

127 cm

x

x

We Wish To Welcome You To Our Land, 2022 feathers, string, hair beads, jewelry, synthetic rose, acrylic and spray paint on canvas

72 x 96 in

182.9 x 243.8 cm

You People With Hearts, 2022 acrylic, chicken feathers, fabric, music sheet, jewelry and spray paint on canvas 92 x 84 in 233.7 x 213.4 cm

Sometime Come To Someplace, 2022

acrylic, spray paint, oil pastels, glass, earrings, wrist watch, feather, lace and synthetic rose on canvas.

76 x 60 in

193 x 152.4 cm

If Only We Walk Far Enough, 2022 feathers, broken Mercedes Benz glass, mirror, string, jewelry, acrylic and spray paint on canvas

72 x 84 in

182.9 x 213.4 cm

Biographies

Bahamian native Jordia Benjamin is a community engagement specialist, educator and cultural leader. With over a decade in the arts sector working predominantly in museum education along with teaching college-level coursework, she embodies a commitment to creating compelling programs, curating creative environments for artists and communities to thrive; using art as the mechanism for change. Through Benjamin’s national and international career she has built sustaining programs for museums centering the museum’s collection and community engagement.

Benjamin serves on the Museum Education Roundtable Board and MassAction Anti-Racism think tank committee. She has been featured in Maine Women Magazine, Black Art in America, Decor Maine, Association

of Academic Museum and Galleries, and Maine Arts Journal. Benjamin has presented at the College Arts Association 111th Annual Conference (2023); MassAction Anti-Racist Community of Practice Roundtable (2021); Saint Louis Art Museum Annual Advancing Change Diversity Summit Conference (2021); Association of Academic Museum and Galleries Conference (2021); Maine Archives and Museums Annual Conference (2020); and the keynote panel for Bates College Martin Luther King Jr. program (2022). Benjamin is a Certified Museum Professional from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance; an alumni of the Cause Effective Next Generation fellowship; and currently a participant of the inaugural cohort of the 2022-2023 National Leaders of Color Network representing Maine and the New England region.

Benjamin is currently the deputy director at Indigo Arts Alliance in Portland, ME, a Black-led arts incubator dedicated to the professional development and amplification of Black and Brown artists via an artist in residence program. As a means of amplifying resident artists, in 2022 Benjamin co-curated the “Visions for our Future; Echoes of our Past: Dianne Smith, Nyugen E. Smith, and Carl Joe Williams” exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Art/Maine College of Art & Design.

Photo: Sean Alonzo Harris

Lavar Munroe is a Bahamian interdisciplinary artist working primarily in painting, cardboard sculptural installations, and mixed media drawings. His work is described as a hybrid medium between painting and relief sculpture. Taking inspiration from his home and local folklore, Munroe uses bold visual language to function as a reaction to the environment of his upbringing to challenge the stigma and judgement associated with the ghetto. His work often incorporates sentimental objects collected and given from his family and birthplace and focuses on themes of travel and its relationship to ancestry, migration, and refugees.

Munroe (b.1982, Nassau, Bahamas) earned his BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design (2007) and his in MFA studio art at Washington University, St. Louis (2013). He also

attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2013) and was awarded a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2016); Benny Andrews Fellow from the MacDowell Colony (2016); and The Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC (2014). Recent solo exhibitions include Jack Bell Gallery, London, England (2022, 2021, 2014); NOMAD, Brussels, Belgium (2017); Gutstein Gallery, Savannah, GA (2016); VOLTA NY, New York, NY (2015); Dadian Gallery, Washington DC (2011); and The Central Bank, Nassau, Bahamas (2010). Notable group shows include The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (2022); Centre Pompidou Metz, FR (2022); Ichihara Lakeside Museum (2020); Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA (2020); Perez Art Museum Miami, FL (2019); Jack Bell Gallery, London, UK (2017); and Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC (2015). He has also been featured in the Kampala Biennale (2020); Off Biennale Cairo (2018); 12th Dakar Biennale, Senegal, West Africa (2016); and 56th Venice Art Biennale (2015).

He is the recipient of honors and awards including the Sondheim Artscape Prize Finalist (2021), Distinguished Alums Award from Sam Fox School of Art and Design from Washington University of St. Louis (2018), Postdoctoral Award for Research Excellence from the University of North Carolina (2015), Sam Fox Dean’s Initiative Fund (2013), Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant (2013), Joan Mitchell Foundation Scholarship (2012), The Kraus Family Foundation Award (2011), and The National Endowment for the Arts Grant (2011). Munroe lives and works between Baltimore, MD and The Bahamas.

Exhibition Checklist

Lavar Munroe

Sometime Come To Someplace, 2022 acrylic, spray paint, oil pastels, glass, earrings, wrist watch, feather, lace and synthetic rose on canvas.

76 x 60 in 193 x 152.4 cm

Lavar Munroe

You People With Hearts, 2022 acrylic, chicken feathers, fabric, music sheet, jewelry and spray paint on canvas

92 x 84 in

233.7 x 213.4 cm

Lavar Munroe

When All The World Is A Hopeless Jumble, 2023 acrylic, spray paint, oil pastel, earrings, and feathers on canvas

78 x 50 in 198.1 x 127 cm

Lavar Munroe

We Wish To Welcome You To Our Land, 2022 feathers, string, hair beads, jewelry, synthetic rose, acrylic and spray paint on canvas

72 x 96 in

72 x 48 in each panel

182.9 x 243.8 cm

Lavar Munroe

If Only We Walk Far Enough, 2022 feathers, broken Mercedes Benz glass, mirror, string, jewelry, acrylic and spray paint on canvas

72 x 84 in

182.9 x 213.4 cm

Lavar Munroe

Land that I Heard Of Once In A Lullaby, 2023

acrylic, spray paint, oil pastels, hair beads, nylon rope, staples, blunt buds (roaches), marbles, carpet, synthetic flower, burnt can-vas, pants and chicken feathers on un-primed canvas

68 x 86 in 172.7 x 218.4 cm

Lavar Munroe

We People Of Flesh And Blood, 2023

acrylic, oil pastels, earrings, beads and feathers on canvas

42 x 50 in 106.7 x 127 cm

Monique Meloche Gallery is located at 451 N Paulina Street, Chicago, IL 60622

For additional info, visit moniquemeloche.com or email info@moniquemeloche.com