Nari Ward: Sun Splashed is the largest survey of the artist’s work to date. Emerging alongside a notable group of black artists in New York City in the 1990s, Nari Ward (b. 1963 in St. Andrew Parish, Jamaica) actively engages with local sites—their histories, communities, and economies—to create spectacular, ambitiously scaled artworks out of unlikely materials. He derives inspiration from his immediate environment, incorporating found objects gathered in and around urban neighborhoods and embracing varied cultural references. Working in sculpture, collage, photography, video, installation, and performance, Ward captures the makeshift qualities of everyday life and imbues his production with a visceral relationship to history and the real world. The exhibition includes artworks made from soda pop, shoelaces, shopping carts, and a fire escape, materials that speak to the artist’s distinctive experimentation. Nari Ward: Sun Splashed focuses on vital points of reference for Ward, including his native Jamaica, citizenship, and migration, as well as African-American history and culture, to explore the dynamics of power and politics in society.
Nari Ward: Sun Splashed is organized by Pérez Art Museum Miami Associate Curator Diana Nawi.
The Boston presentation is coordinated by Ruth Erickson, Associate Curator, The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, with Jessica Hong, Curatorial Associate.
Organization of Nari Ward: Sun Splashed and its presentation at the Pérez Art Museum Miami has been made possible by Citi and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, with additional support from the Funding Arts Network and Gander and White.