THE 61ST INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION OF LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA: LAVAR MUNROE REPRESENTS THE BAHAMAS ALONGSIDE THE LATE JOHN BEADLE
Larkin Durey congratulates gallery artist Lavar Munroe on his participation at the 61st International Venice Biennale. Munroe represents The Bahamas alongside the late John Beadle at The Bahamian Pavilion this year.
"I am elated to have been chosen, along with the late John Beadle, to represent The Bahamas at the 61st Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most prestigious platforms for contemporary art. This extraordinary opportunity offers a space to present work that critically, intellectually and artistically engages with the global audience, while celebrating the depth and creativity of Bahamian contemporary art."
Lavar Munroe
Resonating with the Biennale’s overarching theme, In Minor Keys, envisioned by the late Koyo Kouoh, which celebrates “artists who work at the boundaries of form and whose practices can be thought of as intricate melodies to be heard both collectively and on their own terms,” Pavilion Curator Dr. Krista Thompson’s curatorial approach offers a distinctly Bahamian interpretation of this sentiment. The Pavilion highlights Beadle's and Munroe's use of discarded materials and processes of artistic collaboration to call attention to the hidden, the undervalued, “the minor notes,” in society and in the art world.
Both Beadle’s and Munroe’s work is deeply rooted in Bahamian artistic and social practices, like Junkanoo, the national processional festival that continues to inspire generations of Bahamian creativity. Their dialogue—grounded in the culture of The Bahamas and addressing pressing issues faced in many parts of the world—forms the conceptual and visual foundation of the Pavilion.
Alongside works spanning his career, Munroe commemorates John Beadle through Not Matter How Dreary and Grey, a series of eleven monumental new paintings depicting a memorial procession based on photographs commissioned from Bahamian photographer Jackson Petit.
Installed as one work in a custom-made rotunda, each painting draws upon funerary ceremonies within Junkanoo culture, specifically the gatherings that take place after the death of a community member, when people come together to sing, dance, and sound horns in a collective send-off. Themes of love, celebration, death, journeying—both physical and spiritual—and magic are explored throughout.
In one painting a lone figure in a One Family Junkanoo T-shirt stands on a verdant cliff above the sea, horn raised. Musicians, dancers, flag bearers, and mourners follow, some carrying olive branches, candles, beads, or umbrellas. Their celebration is at once mournful and joyful, expressed through movement, costume, and sound. The panels are embedded with glitter, feathers, tassels, beads, jewellery, mirror shards, cardboard, and newspaper, enlivening the painted surface with light, texture, and colour.
The ocean expanses evoke crossing points between the earthly and spiritual realms. In one section, figures strain behind a structure that recalls Beadle’s mobile houses, enacting the carrying forward of ephemeral forms. Through collective remembrance and remaking, Beadle’s legacy endures.
Munroe was born in 1982. He works between Baltimore, USA and Nassau, Bahamas. Recent solo exhibitions include Walters Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA; Meadows Museum of Art, Shreveport, USA; and SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, USA. Notable group shows and biennales include Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland, The Wright, Detroit, USA, The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas; Centre Pompidou Metz, France; Perez Art Museum Miami, USA; Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, USA; the ‘Prospect 4’ triennial, New Orleans, directed by Trevor Schoonmaker; and All the World’s Futures’, 56th Venice Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor. His work is in the collections of The Baltimore Museum of Art, USA; Studio Museum of Harlem, New York; The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, Nassau; and the MAXXI Museum, Rome, Italy.
The Bahamas in Venice Committee comprises cultural leaders dedicated to advancing the nation’s artistic legacy: John Cox, Chairman, NAGB, Artistic Director, Baha Mar and Commissioner of The Bahamas Pavilion; Maelynn Ford, Executive Director, National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB); Amanda Coulson, Former Executive Director, NAGB (2011–2021), and Executor of the Bahamas Pavilion ; Jodi Minnis, Curator and Cultural Worker; and representatives of the Friends of The Arts in The Bahamas (FAB) Foundation.
The Pavilion’s realization is made possible through the efforts of the FAB Foundation, established to expand opportunities for Bahamian artists and institutions. Lead sponsors include Baha Mar, The Nassau and Paradise Island Promotion Board, FUZE Caribbean Art Fair, and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Support has also been forthcoming from the NAGB and the Port Authority, Freeport Grand Bahama.
