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If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider supporting us as a member. Join Us In a gem of a show at Efraín López gallery in Tribeca through October 12, Braxton Garneau takes Trinidad’s legendary carnival costumes to the next level in his new series of mixed-media works. Restricted to a color palette of blacks, whites, grays, beiges, and tans, they allow the textures of materials like shell to come alive with both graphic intensity and economy of detail.
“What’s unique about the Trinidadian carnival is the cast of characters,” Garneau explained to Hyperallergic . The first carnival celebrations took place in Trinidad in 1783, but the party was organized for White colonizers only. In the 1830s, when enslaved individuals won emancipation, Black people proudly began to participate in carnival — but in costumes that mocked the plantation-owning class.
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