Kemar Keanu Wynter
Focus Section — The Armory Show
curated by Maria Elena Ortiz of the Modern Art Museum Fort Worth
Booth F4
We recommend the latest version of Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or Microsoft Edge.
Kemar Keanu Wynter
Focus Section — The Armory Show
curated by Maria Elena Ortiz of the Modern Art Museum Fort Worth
Booth F4


Wynter first presented works from his ZZ series at Klaus von Nichtssagend in 2021. For the Armory presentation, he has released four previously unexhibited works from his studio. Made with oil pastel and graphite on paper, the works are titled after food dishes and installed hanging from aluminum restaurant ticket holders. Their compositions draw from the concrete street markers Wynter observed during a trip to Havana, Cuba, which function as a formal system for demarcating location. The works also incorporate visual references to markings found in New York and to maritime flag lettering.

The booth will feature a number of Wynter’s pieces from the Rücken– series. Rücken– (from the term Rückenfigur), a motif popularized by German Romanticists. Rückenfigur translates to “figure from the back.” and as such Wynter’s Rücken– paintings are worked on from the back.
These works are in conversation with those by color field artists like Sam Gilliam and romantics like Caspar David Friedrich, who is perhaps most closely associated with the Rückenfigur. Also in play are the chromatic sensibilities of the Hudson River School, whose luminous palettes echo those Wynter witnessed during daily minglings with the rich and colorful Caribbean storefronts and eateries lining the streets intersecting Crown Heights.

Ultrasound (Jerk Pork and Fried Rice), 2026
Acrylic on Evolon
80 × 115 inches (203.20 × 292.10 cm)
KWy1247
$35,000
In 2022 Wynter created a series of ceramic pieces during the Anderson Ranch Arts Center Fellowship. The gallery will show a number of these for the Armory presentation. These pieces lie flat on the wall and reflect the shapes and mark making in his Heralds series. Referencing ancient heraldry, a system of motifs compiled to identify and evoke the histories and legacies of a family. In Wynter’s Heralds he centers his parents, Grafton and Ionie Wynter-Bolden, and the dishes tethered to his childhood apartment at 770 Empire Boulevard, in Brooklyn. Instead of a square, Wynter has morphed the profile of clamshell containers and Tupperware tubs into hexagonal shapes.

Slate I (Bumble Bee and White Rice), 2022
glaze on stoneware in two parts
12 ¼ × 10 ⅜ inches (31.12 × 26.35 cm)
KWy1187
$4000

Slate IV (Boardwalk Cotton Candy), 2022
glaze on stoneware
10 ¼ × 9 ⅝ inches (26.04 × 24.45 cm)
KWy1190
$4000

Slate III (Beef and Broccoli), 2022
glaze on stoneware
13 × 10 ½ inches (33.02 × 26.67 cm)
KWy1189
$4000

b. 1995 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Lives and works in Little Caribbean, Brooklyn
2017 B.F.A., cum laude, Painting and Drawing, SUNY Purchase, Purchase, NY
2013 Imagemakers, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Urist, Jacoba, “Next Big Thing: Kemar Keanu Wynter”, Galerie
Roffino, Sara, “New York Forever: 5 Painting Shows That Prove the City and Its Artists Can Thrive No Matter What”, Cultured Mag
Musser, Amber Jamilla, “Kemar Keanu Wynter: Rücken-“, The Brooklyn Rail
Mina, Ax, “Kemar Keanu Wynter Shares a Soulful Meal of Art”, Hyperallergic
Rafky, Isabella, “Kemar Keanu Wynter Cooks Up an Abstract Feast”, Hyperallergic
Poole, Julie, “For Brooklyn Artist Kemar Wynter, Caribbean Food is a Way Home,” bon appétit
Block, Louis, “Kemar Keanu Wynter: Portions,” Brooklyn Rail
Art Galleries at Black Studies, University of Texas, Austin, TX
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA