An opportunity to plan the Kingston Biennial came as she was putting the finishing touches on the Guggenheim exhibition.
“We were looking for someone to marry intellectual rigor with a presentation that would be accessible,” said O’Neil Lawrence, chief curator at the National Gallery of Jamaica, which says it is the largest and oldest public art museum in the English-speaking Caribbean.
The Kingston Biennial started under a different name in 1977 as a celebration of local artists. But the program has expanded over the past decade to welcome a more international crowd as some alumni from the exhibition — including Ebony G. Patterson, Renee Cox and Leasho Johnson — have found success in the broader art world. This is only the second time a curator from outside the National Gallery of Jamaica will organize the show, which Lawrence said was part of an effort to bring the biennial into a global context.
