Artnews highlights Barrois Jr.’s solo presentation with Alma Pearl in its December 3 roundup of standout booths at Untitled Art Miami Beach.
Artnews named Professor and MFA Program Director Lyndon Barrois Jr. among the artists behind the best booths at Untitled Art, Miami Beach, in its December 3 fair coverage. Presented by London-based gallery Alma Pearl, Barrois Jr.’s solo presentation drew attention for its incisive engagement with film, art history, and the ongoing legacies of colonial extraction. The publication singled out a group of three paintings that combine schematic drawings, collaged hands sourced from art-historical images, and film color bars used to calibrate saturation, writing:
Barrois’s work addresses the histories of colonialism, and this series obliquely references the story of George Washington Williams, born free in Pennsylvania in 1849, a Civil War soldier who later became a member of Ohio’s House of Representatives. In 1890, he visited the Congo Free State and was horrified by the abuses perpetuated by Belgian colonizers. His letter to King Leopold II denouncing these practices popularized the term “crimes against humanity.” Barrois links this exploitation in the Congo to the sleight of hand Belgium used to first gain access to the region—before establishing a brutal regime that killed millions. Today, extraction continues, as the world still seeks to mine Congo for minerals like cobalt used in lithium batteries.
Image: Works by Lyndon Barrois Jr at Alma Pearl’s presentation at Untitled Art Miami Beach. Photo: Maximilíano Durón/ARTnews