Aida Esi Hayfron-Benjamin brings Caribbean abstraction to Atlanta, spotlighting Kenwyn Crichlow in a landmark presentation at The Works.
Aida Esi Hayfron-Benjamin. Photographer: Kibwe Braithwaite
Atlanta Art Week (AAW) returns this October for its fourth edition, affirming the city’s growing role as a cultural hub within the United States and across the African diaspora. For the first time, the programme introduces the role of Curator of Special Projects, a position designed to forge new bridges between Atlanta’s local arts community and global networks of artists, curators, and audiences. The inaugural appointee, Accra-based and Trinidadian-born curator Aida Esi Hayfron-Benjamin, launches her tenure with ‘Persistent Colour’, a focused exhibition of six large-scale works by pioneering Trinidadian painter Kenwyn Crichlow. Together, the initiative signals Atlanta Art Week’s ambition to expand its reach and engage in conversations that extend far beyond the city limits.
A new curatorial chapter for Atlanta
Since its founding, Atlanta Art Week has sought to consolidate the city’s diverse artistic ecosystem, bringing together galleries, institutions, artists, and collectors in a programme of exhibitions, talks, and events. With the creation of the Curator of Special Projects role, founder Kendra Walker emphasises the importance of global dialogue and local depth: “We are delighted to welcome the discerning curatorial vision of Aida Esi to Atlanta Art Week. We eagerly anticipate the unfolding of her curatorial influence and how it is received by the broader Atlanta community.”
Hayfron-Benjamin’s appointment underscores AAW’s investment in shaping an inclusive platform. Her career, spanning the Caribbean, West Africa, and the United States, has consistently centred on artistic exchange and diasporic connection. As founder of Citizen Projects in Accra, she has curated residencies, exhibitions, and dialogues that foreground borderless creativity. For Atlanta, she brings this same ethos, positioning the city as part of a broader Black Atlantic cultural conversation.
‘Persistent Colour’: the power of abstraction
At the heart of Hayfron-Benjamin’s Atlanta project is ‘Persistent Colour’, a presentation of six monumental canvases by Kenwyn Crichlow, one of the Caribbean’s most enduring abstract painters. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Crichlow has spent over five decades developing a visual language rooted in gesture, colour, and the natural topography of the tropics. Working from his studio in Curepe, where shadows, light, and vines creep across his canvases, he has cultivated an abstract idiom that feels simultaneously intimate and expansive.
Crichlow’s canvases shimmer with organic shapes, often evoking landscapes of flora, fauna, or underwater ecosystems. At times, his lines suggest molecular fibres or connective tissues, echoing his interest in both the macro and micro scales of life. “His abstraction has developed into a recognisable language,” Hayfron-Benjamin notes, “evoking not only the beauty of Trinidad’s environment but also the deeper emotional landscapes that abstraction can carry.”
In Atlanta, these works offer viewers an opportunity to encounter Caribbean modernism within a new context, framed as part of a transatlantic dialogue rather than a regional footnote.
Diaspora bridges: Caribbean, Africa, and Atlanta
For Hayfron-Benjamin, ‘Persistent Colour’ is more than an exhibition; it is a gesture of connection. She positions Crichlow’s practice as a bridge between Caribbean experience and the broader diasporic narrative, opening a space for Atlanta audiences to consider their own place within these conversations. “Through this presentation, I am hoping to explore the connections we share across the Black Atlantic—Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean,” she explains. “As well as the power of abstraction to transcend racial and political ties.”
Atlanta, with its legacy of civil rights history and its rapidly expanding contemporary arts infrastructure, becomes a fitting stage for this exploration. Crichlow’s abstractions resonate not only as aesthetic objects but as cultural signifiers—gesturing toward histories of migration, resilience, and community-building that unite different corners of the diaspora.
From Accra to Atlanta: a curatorial trajectory
Hayfron-Benjamin’s curatorial practice has been shaped by multiple geographies. Growing up in Trinidad, she was influenced by her grandmother’s deep patronage of Caribbean artists. In Miami, she encountered global art audiences through Art Basel, curating her first projects alongside the city’s dynamic creative scene. Assignments in Cameroon and Ghana introduced her to the “astronomical” rise of contemporary African art, where she steered residency programmes and collaborated with artists whose practices bridged continents.
In 2022, she established Citizen Projects in Accra, a gallery and platform dedicated to fostering research, production, and dialogue across the arts. Her projects—whether residencies in Benin City, Nigeria, or collaborations with artists across Africa and the diaspora—embody a commitment to creating spaces where cultural memory and innovation coexist. Bringing this experience to Atlanta, she frames her role as a chance to expand conversations, emphasising the Caribbean’s place in the larger diasporic constellation.
The enduring relevance of Crichlow
Kenwyn Crichlow is not only an artist of formidable vision but also a dedicated mentor and cultural advocate. For decades, he has supported emerging artists in the Caribbean, particularly through his role as a founding administrator of the University of the West Indies Visual Arts Programme. Presenting his work in Atlanta acknowledges both his individual artistry and his contributions to nurturing a regional art ecosystem.
“Bringing his work to Atlanta feels timely and important,” Hayfron-Benjamin reflects, “as the art world begins to shift its attention to the contributions of Caribbean artists to the canon.” The exhibition thus serves a dual purpose: honouring Crichlow’s legacy and broadening the narratives accessible to Atlanta audiences.
Towards a resonant future
With ‘Persistent Colour’, Atlanta Art Week sets a precedent for how its new Special Projects initiative can function: as a platform for international exchange, diasporic dialogue, and artistic recognition. The collaboration between Hayfron-Benjamin, Citizen Projects, and Citizen Projects’ partners, including Diane Rosenstein Gallery, reinforces the importance of cross-continental networks in shaping the future of contemporary art.
For Atlanta, the exhibition offers more than a viewing experience—it proposes resonance as a mode of connection, inviting audiences to engage not only with colour and form but with histories, communities, and futures shared across oceans.
‘Persistent Colour’ is on view from October 3 to 11, 2025, at The Works, Atlanta. Learn more at atlantaartweek.co.
