NEW YORK, NY.- Nicola Vassell Gallery announced the representation of Che Lovelace, an unabashed painter of the flora, fauna, figures, landscapes and rituals of the Caribbean. His depictions of the rhythms of Trinidadian life are informed by his rootedness there, having established his studio practice on the rural outskirts of Port-of-Spain. His solo exhibition with the gallery will be presented in March 2023 and his work will be on view at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022.
Lovelaces fascination with Caribbean iconography is a metaphorical expedition through postcolonialism, resistance, freedom, mythology and nature. The result is a complex and nuanced expression of his own sense of identity, politics, place, and community.
Lovelace likens his material and formal interventionssuch as cleaving the canvas into quadrants and dissecting the picture plane into cubist constituentsto exploring Caribbean selfhood as an integration of antecedents and transforming simplicity into wonder.
Lovelace received his training at lEcole Régionale des Beaux-Arts de la Martinique. Solo exhibitions of his work include Presented as Natural, Various Small Fires, Seoul (2022); From the Edge of the Rock, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles (2021); New Paintings, LOFTT Gallery, Port of Spain (2018); Che Lovelace Paintings, Gallerie Eric Hussenot, Paris and Half Gallery, NY (2017); Lovers, Y Gallery, Trinidad (2013) among others. Group exhibitions of his work include Uncanny Interiors, Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York (2022); Still Life: An Ongoing Story, Galerie Sébastien Bertrand, Geneva (2019); Get Up, Stand Up Now, Somerset House, London (2019); Turps Banana, Vigo Gallery, London (2012) among others. His work is in the public collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, X Museum, Beijing, CH, and the Aïshti Foundation, Lebanon. Lovelace lectures at the University of the West Indies Creative Arts Campus.