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Hyperallergic

15 NYC Art Shows to See in October: Kemar Keanu Wynter

By AX Mina

October 2, 2024

Kemar Keanu Wynter: Rücken–

Kemar Keanu Wynter, “The Sun’s Gaze (Marinated Leeks)” (2024), acrylic on Evolon, 63 1/2 x 90 1/2 inches (161.29 x 229.87 cm) (image courtesy Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York)

The “visual patois” of Kemar Keanu Wynter’s paintings, as he describes it, are hard to translate in online images. My immediate sensation when visiting the works in his studio at the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program was of scent, followed by a desire to run my fingers along their colorful textures, and then, finally, motion, as I moved from side to side and along the length of these giant works to experience them in different angles and light. Wyner’s patois draws from his Caribbean, New York, and global sensibilities, and titles like “Awash in Copper (Tiramisu)” and “The Sun’s Gaze (Marinated Leeks)” only add to the synesthetic delight. The show’s title references Rückenfigur, or back figure, most famously represented by Caspar David Friedrich’s “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog”(c. 1818). Each painting is displayed from the back, hung without a frame or canvas, an invitation to join the artist in the fog. —AX Mina