CHICAGO, IL.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago opened Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today, organized by Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator Carla Acevedo-Yates and on view from November 19, 2022, through April 23, 2023.
This major exhibition is a innovate rethinking of “Caribbean art,” focusing on art in the Caribbean diaspora and featuring an intergenerational group of 37 artists who live and work across the Americas and Europe. Challenging conventional ideas about the region, Forecast Form reveals the Caribbean as a place defined not by geography, language, or ethnicity, but by constant exchange, displacement, and movement.
“The exhibition’s focus on diaspora acknowledges that the region has been and continues to be constituted by movement; most notably of people, both forced and voluntary, but also of global commodities, financial assets, oil barrels, and tropical storms,” says Curator Carla Acevedo-Yates in the accompanying exhibition catalogue.
The exhibition takes the 1990s as a cultural backdrop. This decade—a period of profound social, political, and economic transformation globally—also had a major effect on art from the Caribbean, and in the cultural sector gave rise to a Pan-Caribbean art exhibition model that attempted to represent the region’s complex, colonial histories through art. In contrast, Forecast Form focuses on the affinities shared between works made by artists who have ties to the region yet hold diverse personal identities, geographies, and histories. Using the weather’s constant movement as a metaphor for analyzing artistic practices, this expansive exhibition reveals new modes of thinking about identity and place. Through a deeply innovative exploration of form, Forecast Formpositions the region as a place where the past, the present, and the future meet.
Working in cities across the globe, the exhibition’s 37 artists include Candida Alvarez, Firelei Báez, Álvaro Barrios, Frank Bowling, Sandra Brewster, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker, Christopher Cozier, Julien Creuzet, Maksaens Denis, Peter Doig, Jeannette Ehlers, Tomm El-Saieh, Alia Farid, Teresita Fernández, Rafael Ferrer, Denzil Forrester, Joscelyn Gardner, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Deborah Jack, Engel Leonardo, Daniel Lind-Ramos, Suchitra Mattai, David Medalla, Ana Mendieta, Lorraine O'Grady, Ebony G. Patterson, Keith Piper, Marton Robinson, Donald Rodney, Freddy Rodríguez, Tavares Strachan, Zilia Sánchez, Rubem Valentim, Adán Vallecillo, Cosmo Whyte, and Didier William. Accompanying the exhibition is an expansive, 288-page catalogue featuring groundbreaking scholarship as well as extensive plate sections reproducing exhibition artworks in full color.
Forecast Form is the first major, fourth-floor MCA exhibition presented in both Spanish and English and launches the MCA’s transition into becoming a fully bilingual institution, with all subsequent exhibitions presented in both languages. Through this initiative, the museum aims to offer unprecedented access for visitors through Spanish and English content including gallery didactics, website content, wayfinding, signage, captioning for programming, on-site Spanish-speaking visitor services associates, and more.
“Our commitment to inspiring meaningful connections through contemporary art includes creating a space that is welcoming to our entire community. With nearly 25% of Chicagoans speaking Spanish at home, we recognize the important role language plays in providing access to museum offerings. We understand that this initiative will be a continual work-in-progress, as we evolve to meet the needs of our community and discover new ways to meet visitors where they are.” Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director
