The Western question of freedom became an issue in the Caribbean region with the advent of colonialism, the enslavement of the region's indigenous populations and the subsequent importation of slaves from other parts of the world. In the era of independence and nationalist movements (1960s - 1980s), the question of freedom took on politically programmatic answers. The intellectual climate of the current era of postcoloniality (1980s to the present) permits us to reflect on the very question of freedom itself, on the representation of freedom through its various channels: in art, culture, religion, travel, and government.

The exhibition No Country is an Island: Figures of Freedom in Recent Caribbean (American) Art presents the work of artists who grapple with different aspects of this ubiquitous question of freedom, either directly or indirectly. Their work examines contemporary problems in the states of "Caribbeanness"—the new predicaments of freedom that postcolonial worlds deliver. These predicaments are not island-bound or circumscribed by a sea, but are global in terms of political and cultural scope.

Predicaments in question include the rethinking of diasporic experience (within and outside the Caribbean), the CARICOM Single Market and Economy initiative, the fabrication of new identities for new spaces, the politicization of those spaces, and the creation of new mythologies with which to retell regional stories.

This is a collaborative exhibition organized by Yoland Skeete, Director of Sumei Multidisciplinary Arts Center in Newark, and Jorge Daniel Veneciano, Director of the Paul Robeson Gallery. A catalogue will accompany the exhibition, containing essays by the curators, invited scholars, and artists. A panel discussion will be presented, engaging both artists and scholars about their work and relevant concerns. Please check back for specific dates for the opening reception and panel, to be posted in the near future.