NADA New York 2022

Curtis Talwst Santiago’s multifaceted practice—encompassing mixed media paintings, drawings, miniature dioramas, video, and performance—highlights the narratives that have been lost to, or misinterpreted by history. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at New York’s The Drawing Center and Rachel Uffner Gallery, and is held in the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Based between Lisbon, New York and Toronto, he has also exhibited at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami; New Museum, New York; the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah; and the FLAG Art Foundation, New York; among others.

The Party Can’t Done originates from Santiago’s J’ouvert series, which celebrates his Caribbean ancestors’ resilience, joy and imagination. An annual street celebration that signals the beginning of Carnival, J’ouvert is recalled by the artist as a special time in his childhood, defined by trips to Trinidad where he would be surrounded by family and bathed in sunlight. He muses, “My first Carnival was the first time I felt the presence of those who came before me.”