OVER THE PAST DECADE, Joiri Minaya has developed a robustly layered body of work that speaks to the intricacies of Caribbean history and its subjects. Drawing on her upbringing and Carribbean heritage, the New York–born, Dominican Republic–raised artist creates photographs, installations, videos, and public art interventions that deal with themes of tourism, landscape, and the history of colonialism. Her current exhibition, “Joiri Minaya: Geographic Bodies” at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, helpfully surveys her own geographically influenced body of work. Organized by George Bolster and Anjuli Nanda Diamond, the exhibition showcases Minaya’s collage-like repurposing of stereotypical imagery of the tropics, such as hypersexualized female bodies or pristine crystal-clear waters. Bringing her local perspective to bear on these tropes, Minaya deploys the body as a site to explore Caribbean strategies of resisting colonization’s oppressive legacy and reflecting on “natural” beauty.
