Cuban-Dominican artist Quisqueya Henríquez (b. 1966) is known for concept-driven works that serve to shorten the cultural and psychological distances between the Caribbean and the “outside world”. This survey features sculptures, installations, drawings, photographs, videos, and light/sound works spanning the last two decades of the artist’s career.

With a sharp sense of humor and irony, Henríquez breaks down the barriers between experimental art and popular culture. Humorous examples of how the artist draws from the daily life around her include Jugando con la adversidad (Playing with Adversity), 2001-06, a series of sculptures fashioned from actual playing balls comprising, among other things, a basketball gutted and carved into a woman’s purse, a soccer ball turned inside out and trimmed into a stylish woman’s cap, and a basketball divested of all but its seams.

One of Henríquez’s best known artworks was indeed conceived as a humorous commentary on the stereotype of the Caribbean as being “hot-blooded.” Helado de agua del mar Caribe (Caribbean Sea Water Ice Cream), 2002, which the artist presented at Art Chicago several years ago, is actual ice cream made with Caribbean sea water.

Henríquez studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana and the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo. The artist’s first name is the indigenous name given to Santo Domingo before the coming of the Spanish.

Quisqueya Henríquez has been featured in solo exhibitions at Artists Space, New York; Miami Art Museum; Miami; the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City; and The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore. She has also been included in many international exhibitions and biennials.