Marielle Plaisir | Strange Fruits

Marielle Plaisir's solo exhibition, Strange Fruits, at the Coral Gables Museum showcases recent works from the Miami, FL-based artist. Working across various disciplines from painting and drawing to sculpture, fashion, and performance, Plaisir creates intense visual experiences that explore her French-Caribbean heritage against the backdrop of post-colonialism. She addresses prejudice through the lens of body politics and identifies moments of struggle and social control over the Black body. Plaisir carefully dissects control systems to present us with new, freeing, empowering realities and counter-narratives. 

Regarding her work, French Guadalupian writer Gisèle Pineau says, "The concept of social domination is at the heart of Marielle Plaisir's artistic approach. Through her art, by dint of beauty, the artist demonstrates the aberration of the chaotic world, the violence of slavery, of the 'Treaty', of the colonial and post-colonial periods, and the horror of racial discrimination that survives to this day. There is so much delicacy, strength, and benevolence in the pictorial intent of the artist who dares to show and demonstrate the world in its faults and lethal absurdity. Acta non verba."

Curated by Yuneikys Villalonga, Director of Curatorial Programs at the Coral Gables Museum, the project was granted a 2022 Knight New Work Award from the Knight Foundation.

Strange Fruits is on view from November 30th, 2023 - April 28, 2024. Please check back in the coming weeks for additional work and installation images.