
COOPER COLE is please to present Moving through burning haze, an exhibition of the work of Curtis Talwst Santiago. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery.
Santiago works in multiple media to examine questions of memory, ancestry, and diasporic imagination. His works weave historical, familial, and speculative narratives together to question colonial frameworks and celebrate forgotten forms of knowledge.
This exhibition presents a series of recent works that pay respect to Santiago’s parents as familial teachers of Trinidadian traditions. The artist is particularly interested in how this knowledge is transferred, becomes embodied, and lives on in the diaspora. Through drawing, painting, and sculpture, Santiago reflects on the cultural practices that his parents taught him about, as well as his own experiences of visiting Trinidad, while employing imagination to connect the migratory narrative dots.
Moving through burning haze depicts Trinidadian carnival, its celebratory practices, and related stories from a diasporic perspective. Featured centrally in the works, the Jab Jab character in the J’Ouvert parade appears as someone spirited, exuberant, and potentially sinister. To reflect on the nuances of this character, Santiago has drawn dozens of portraits that meditate on Jab Jab’s depth and multiplicity, and how he is used as an instructional figure. In his larger paintings and sculptural works, Santiago explores carnival’s embodied dynamism and the collision of history, ritual, and myth.
Curtis Talwst Santiago (b. 1979, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) studied as an apprentice of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun and at the New York Studio School. He has completed several residencies including Black Rock Senegal, Pioneer Works Brooklyn, and at the University of Tennessee. Santiago has exhibited internationally at museums such as the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, The Drawing Center, New York; The FLAG Art Foundation, New York; The New Museum, New York; The Eli and Edythe Broad Museum at Michigan State University, East Lansing; the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond; the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan; The Pérez Art Museum Miami; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; and the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah; among others. The artist was included in the inaugural 2019 Toronto Biennial of Art in Toronto, Canada, the SITE Santa Fe SITELines.2018 Biennial, Casa Tomada, in Santa Fe, NM, and was featured in the 2018 Biennale de Dakar in Dakar, Senegal. Santiago lives and works in Munich, Germany.
Curtis Santiago
Jab Women, Jab Jab Posse
Jab Women, Jab Jab Posse, 2023
Mixed media in reclaimed jewelry box
C.Sa0100
Curtis Santiago
The Places We Will Come and Will Be From
The Places We Will Come and Will Be From, 2017-2023
Spray paint, oil, charcoal, pastel, acrylic, laces and grommets on canvas
C.Sa0035
Curtis Santiago
Untitled
Untitled, 2022
Spray paint, oil, charcoal, pastel and acrylic on canvas
C.Sa0034
Curtis Santiago
Untitled
Untitled, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
C.Sa0037
Curtis Santiago
Untitled
Untitled, 2019
Acrylic on Canvas
C.Sa0038
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0098
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0095
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0089
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0070
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0063
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0059
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0058
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0057
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0049
Curtis Santiago
Jab Molassie Posse
Jab Molassie Posse, 2022
Mixed Media on paper
C.Sa0048