Visual PATOIS
Kemar Keanu Wynter is represented by
Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York
Kemar Keanu Wynter is represented by
Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York
About Me:
Growing up estranged from the Patois of my heritage, I came to see the kitchen, enlivened by the staccato rattle of pot covers over a rolling boil, cries of marinated meats greeting scalding oil and the humid heat carrying aloft dulcet notes of ginger, allspice and burnt sugar, as my tether to Jamaica. As a child of the Five Boroughs, I grew to love the velveteen tenderness of a spinach knish, the enrapturing scorch of chili-laden minced pork and the titillating crisp of peppermint dark chocolate as much as I do the unctuousness of cow-foot soup.
Texture, flavor and heat are my practice; paintings made in homage to the bevy of cuisines that I have had the privilege to encounter. Layers of luscious whorls draw the viewer into fields of color which frequently operate with coded references to my histories; one, generations-long in the Antilles and another burgeoning within the Five Boroughs. Through this interplay of motif and materiality, the viewer’s own tethers to comfort, heritage and home are brought into focus.
I'm building a visual Patois, a body of work through which I can triangulate myself between the Caribbean, New York and the innumerable cultures and cuisines yet encountered.
Growing up estranged from the Patois of my heritage, I came to see the kitchen, enlivened by the staccato rattle of pot covers over a rolling boil, cries of marinated meats greeting scalding oil and the humid heat carrying aloft dulcet notes of ginger, allspice and burnt sugar, as my tether to Jamaica. As a child of the Five Boroughs, I grew to love the velveteen tenderness of a spinach knish, the enrapturing scorch of chili-laden minced pork and the titillating crisp of peppermint dark chocolate as much as I do the unctuousness of cow-foot soup.
Texture, flavor and heat are my practice; paintings made in homage to the bevy of cuisines that I have had the privilege to encounter. Layers of luscious whorls draw the viewer into fields of color which frequently operate with coded references to my histories; one, generations-long in the Antilles and another burgeoning within the Five Boroughs. Through this interplay of motif and materiality, the viewer’s own tethers to comfort, heritage and home are brought into focus.
I'm building a visual Patois, a body of work through which I can triangulate myself between the Caribbean, New York and the innumerable cultures and cuisines yet encountered.