Nari Ward: Sun Splashed

Nari Ward (b. 1963, St. Andrew Parish, Jamaica) actively engages with local sites—their histories, communities, and economies—to create spectacular, ambitiously-scaled artworks out of unlikely materials. This mid-career survey exhibition includes artworks made from soda pop bottles, shoelaces, shopping carts, and a fire escape—materials that speak to the artist’s distinctive experimentation and resonate with social, political, and cultural meaning. Working in a great diversity of media, Ward captures the makeshift qualities of everyday life and imbues his production with a visceral relationship to history and the real world. The exhibition focuses on vital points of reference for Ward, including his native Jamaica, citizenship and migration, and 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, with Jessica Hong, Curatorial Associate.