At Harvard’s Alain Locke Gallery, an intergenerational exhibition traces histories of resistance, imagination and sovereignty across the Creole and Maroon Caribbean and Amazonia.
30 September 2026
Bringing together contemporary voices and landmark historical works, ‘An Introduction to Van Lévé. Sovereign Visions from the Creole and Maroon Caribbean and Amazonia: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane & Haiti: 2001-Now’ presents an expansive exploration of artistic practice shaped by histories of colonialism, resistance and cultural transformation.
Curated by Claire Tancons, the exhibition gathers artists connected to territories in the Americas formerly under French colonial rule. Moving across generations and geographies, ‘Van Lévé’ establishes a dialogue between past and present while foregrounding a flourishing of Creole, Maroon, Caribbean and Amazonian perspectives.
Featuring artists including Minia Biabiany, Raphaël Barontini, Gaëlle Choisne, Kenny Dunkan, David Gumbs, Manuel Mathieu, Tessa Mars, Cédrine Scheidig and Hervé Télémaque, among others, the exhibition asks how art might confront complex colonial inheritances while imagining possibilities for sovereignty and emancipation.
Presented as the first chapter of a wider curatorial project, ‘Van Lévé’approaches history not as something fixed, but as a terrain continuously revisited and reshaped through artistic practice.
This exhibition is on view at the Alain Locke Gallery of African & African American Art at Harvard University from 28 September 2026 to 5 June 2027.
