The Caribbean: A Collector’s Point of View

The Case of Collector turned Gallerist.

“Roberto Borlenghi opened his first space in the 1990’s in Los Angeles, California. When I first met him he had established a keen interest in the Caribbean region. We met at the Centre D’Art on his first trip to Haiti where he was looking to purchase works from local artists to present at his gallery in L.A. I’m delighted that so many years later he is still very interested in that region and in the process has collected so many of the luminaries from the archipelago.
He ask me to curate this particular show from works collected over the last few decades. His collection is quite vast and I had to pare it down to three islands: Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica. From these islands I could only select three artists per island. The list is as follows:

Cuba represented by: Santiago Olazabal, Juan Roberto Diago, Manuel Mendive

Haiti represented by: Burton Chenet, Marilene Phipps, Edpuard Duval Carrié

Jamaica represented by: David Boxer, Milton George, and Gene Pearson

Though all of these artists have made a name for themselves in their respective island nations and on the international art scene for the quality and mastery of their art, what is of interest here is the fact that Mr. Borlenghi had a keen eye and selected works from each of these artists that are excellent representations of their production. I will let the public ascertain these facts but I want to congratulate Mr. Borlenghi for having had early on this interest in a region which is destined to be of great importance to Miami for truly, amongst many other criteria, Miami is central to the Caribbean as is that region central to the evolution of this metropolis.”

Edouard Duval Carrié – artist|curator