KAREEM-ANTHONY FERREIRA

Kareem Anthony Ferreira (Canada, 1989) explores personal, familial, and social identity through intimate scenes deeply connected to his own memories. Using painting and collage techniques Ferreira works within the genre of Black portraiture in an effort to shift perceptions and offer re-creations of identity, personal family traits, and events. A first-generation Canadian with Trinidadian roots, Ferreira uses family archives consisting of photographs, disassociated objects and ordinary material to construct textured compositions through a process of assemblage.

Ferreira’s repurposing and incorporation of materials often use commercial representations of the Caribbean, meant to be easily identifiable, cliché, and at times, sarcastic. His work plays with the North American idea and desire for ‘island life’, stripping Caribbean, and specifically Trinidadian identities, of their historical complexities and juxtaposing them with the emotionally sincere human figures he uses as subjects. What results is a work that questions a visitor's idea of the Caribbean as an unspecified fictional location whose primary purpose is to serve as a space of escape and entertainment. Ferreira’s work is an exploration of these island imaginaries through the lens of community, the family unit, and everyday lived experiences. 

Ferreira has shown internationally in North America and the Caribbean. He earned a BFA from McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario, and is currently pursuing an MFA in the painting department at the University of Arizona.