Caribbean Art Duo Make Waves at Miami’s Art Basel
Lisa Howie photographed by Sylvanus Nawab
Vanessa Selk photographed by Viviane Glissant
written by Shanida Carter
Art Basel Miami Beach is widely believed to be North America’s most comprehensive international contemporary art fair held in December every year. Out of more than 275 galleries that participated in the 2023 event, one exhibition emerged, staged by two Caribbean women, just six weeks before Art Basel started. And it was a success.
“It was a 12-hour installation. We had to kick people out,” Lisa Howie, co-creative director of ‘The Open Boat’ said.
“Every day, we were not able to close the doors and walk away when we wanted to because we had people still there. It wasn't just that people came. They stayed. They returned. We had several people come many times bringing repeat people with them, bringing more people with them,” Howie said.
More than 500 people got the chance to soak up “The Open Boat” exhibition, which brilliantly showcased Caribbean art through the lens of Martinican philosopher and poet Édouard Glissant's text of the same name. More than 40 artworks by 27 artists across seven countries were carefully selected and curated to create an impactful narrative based on Glissant’s text on the Middle Passage from Africa to the Caribbean.
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The fabric of the Caribbean diaspora highlighted in the essay was brought to the surface in the show in every way, from the artists to the performances to the talks to the historic venue where it was held, Villa Paula (designed by a Cuban architect originally as a consulate for the Cuban government) to the location in the heart of Little Haiti. The exhibition invited spectators to experience the show in the villa’s rooms and outdoor spaces, fittingly, in a wave-like formation.
“People saw this as a kind of slow art faring,” Vanessa Selk, co-creative director said.
“People took their time. They were not hustling through the fair. It was very different. It was like a home. People mentioned this to us very often and that kind of gave us a different experience of what Art Basel Miami could be like,” Selk said.
What’s more astounding is that the show’s creators, Lisa Howie and Vanessa Selk, met through a mutual friend for the first time just five months before staging “The Open Boat.” Fueled by their shared vision for elevating Caribbean culture and promoting community engagement, they pooled their existing resources to form Atlantic Arthouse. Howie, director of Black Pony Gallery, is a cultural entrepreneur based in Bermuda who has a background in museum education and leadership. Selk, artistic director of the Tout-Monde Art Foundation, was a diplomat for more than a decade and operates in the nonprofit sector in Miami.
Diverse Shores, Unified Horizon
The essence of the women’s cultural backgrounds has infused every aspect of their creative journey thus far. Both their childhoods were buoyed by art and culture in mixed Caribbean and European families but that’s where the similarities end.
Selk was born in Mallorca, Spain, to a German father and mother from French Guiana. She grew up traveling from Europe to the Caribbean and back several times, most notably living in the Amazon jungle. While total immersion in nature was the best part, she said, it wasn’t always the safest, especially when swimming in the river.
“It was dangerous because it was very dark and brown from the Amazonian mud, so you needed to be always very alert on what was going on,” she said. '“Very often, my parents would call to me and say, ‘Oh, Vanessa, just come slowly out of the water’ because there was this anaconda or whatever huge, terrible scary animal there was,” Selk said.
Howie was born and raised in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada with maternal roots stretching back to Bermuda as early as 1614. She credits her Scottish/Irish father with first fueling her passion for art.
“My father is an extremely creative-minded person, and he had a strong influence on the architect and the interior designers of the home I grew up in so my most formative years of that creative development and the freedom I had as a child was from ages birth to nine years old,” Howie said.
Shifting Cultural Tides
Their lifelong commitment to uplifting Caribbean voices and challenging cultural norms underscores the transformative power of art as a catalyst for social change and empowerment. Howie and Selk wanted to make sure that that empowerment wasn’t out of reach for anyone. Tickets to “The Open Boat” were donation-based, and prices for the artwork started at $300. A partnering school also visited on a day of educational outreach. They said these facets were important to exposing non-Caribbeans to the culture.
“They don't know what to expect. What is Caribbean art? Then they see this, and for them, it's really innovative and mind-breaking because it's not what they expect so we're breaking boundaries and we're showing what it's not supposed to be or what it can be,” Selk said.
The pair plans to present a second exhibition at Art Basel in 2024 as well as expand their online platform and create a physical space for Atlantic Arthouse. No time for sailing on any laurels.
Howie said, “We have never had time to pop a bottle of champagne. We haven't had time to play, and we haven't had a dinner yet where we didn't have decisions to make for work. Every conversation that we ever seem to have and the time we spent together is very focused.” She added, “So many projects are happening in the cultural ecosystem. They have to grow and evolve.”
Galleries that feature Caribbean Mid-Atlantic artists can email info@atlanticarthouse.com to inquire about participation in the next exhibition at Art Basel Miami Beach 2024.
