Jack Bell Gallery (London) is pleased to present Grants Town Trickster, an exhibition of large-scale paintings by artist Lavar Munroe. This marks the first solo exhibition of Lavar Munroe’s work with the gallery. Till July 5th.
In the exhibit Grants Town Trickster, Lavar Munroe champions the idea of the artist as trickster through a personal mythology he creates. Specifically, His work explores various stages of Joseph Cambell’s Monomyth, also known as The Hero’s Journey. Munroe was born and grew up in the impoverished, stigmatized and oftentimes marginalized Grants Town community in Nassau Bahamas. He moved to the United States at age 21 and assimilated into American culture. Munroe’s objective in his work is to map his matriculation through various spheres within society whereby he tells a story of success through tracing a journey that begins in an impoverished state, both mentally and physically, ending in a place of enrichment. Both autobiographic and universal in nature, Munroe’s intentions are to work through behaviors of the trickster as an embodiment of self and hero.
Much of Munroe’s practice comprises research that is informed by critical investigation and theories surrounding mythology, literature, and folk archetypes. Through visual personification and allegory, he narrates and elaborates on real life events. Literature, documentaries, and real world conversations also fuel Munroe’s work. “Though framed in fictional narratives, my work explores and in many ways critiques real life situations that I have either personally experienced or encountered through research. Oftentimes I am reminded of the underlying darkness that reoccur in childhood fables – in a sense, drawing a parallel to the menacing motifs that occur in my work.”
Courtesy Jack Bell Gallery London.