At Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York, Kemar Keanu Wynter presents his solo exhibition, Heralds. Showcasing nine paintings on paper, the exhibition delves into Wynter’s signature abstract portrayal of food, interwoven with his family history. The artworks evoke the rich sensory tapestry of Jamaican culture, familiar from Wynter’s earlier pieces, now encapsulated in hexagonal frames that highlight abstract fields. These works, segmented by an X formation, draw parallels to flags, family emblems, shields, and containers brimming with textured delicacies.
Wynter utilizes heraldry, the system governing coat-of-arms and family legacies, to narrate untold stories from his Jamaican diasporic upbringing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. His incorporation of grommets into the paper emphasizes tactile materiality, while the frames’ saltire partitions underscore a sense of strength amid delicacy. Each artwork is divided into four quadrants, two of which feature meandering pastel traces, guiding the color palettes that converge at the piece’s core. The other two sections blur these colors, merging them as if digesting them together.
Wynter subtly challenges boundaries with marks that gently cross over the borders, a permeability particularly evident in “(XX.) Cassava Pone” (2023), where a vivid blue coil playfully engages with an adjacent deep brown panel tinged with blue. This technique mirrors the mingling of flavors on a dinner plate, reflecting the complementary nature of ancestral memory and evolving heritage. In “(IV.) August Fishcakes” (2022), hues of blue, pink, and orange evoke an end-of-summer memory, enriched with the evolving tastes of a traditional dish. Heralds stands as a testament to Wynter’s unique warmth and abstraction, reinforcing his artistic practice and heritage within a reimagined tradition.
Kemar Keanu Wynter: Heralds is on display at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery (87 Franklin Street, Tribeca, New York) until June 17. The exhibition is curated by the gallery.
