#  Van Lévé: Sovereign Visions from the Creole and Maroon Caribbean and Amazonia: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, and Haiti 

 



## Van Lévé: Sovereign Visions from the Creole and Maroon Caribbean and Amazonia: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, and Haiti



 

 

       ![Ronald Cyrille's surrealist painting "L’Accomade"](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2026-08/_NTR63851.jpg?h=78192c6b&itok=sMqSiEdw) 

 

 



 

 



###### Above: Detail of Ronald Cyrille, *L’Accomade* from the series *L'Antre deux,* Acrylic on canvas, 208cm x 198cm



 

 

    ![Photo by Cedrine Scheidig, C print framed](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_1_1__480x480/public/2026-08/SCHEIDIG_Gold_2022.jpg?h=96f3d05d&itok=n8eSwqaN) 

 



 

 Cedrine Scheidig, "Les Mornes, Le Feu" / "Saltwater and Other Ghosts" (English title), 2022-2024. Framed C-print, 45 x 55 cm.



   

 

    ![Tessa Mars' 2020 painting, "A Vision of Peace, Harmony and Good Intelligence" ](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_1_1__480x480/public/2026-08/A%20vision%20of%20peace%20harmony%20and%20good%20intelligence%202020_1.jpg?h=4ed10a2e&itok=AMKNqT6K) 

 



 

 Tessa Mars, "A Vision of Peace, Harmony and Good Intelligence," 2020. Acrylic paint on canvas, 190 x 190 cm. Collection: Sabine Vazieux



   

 

    ![Screenshot from David Gumbs' 2024 VR Installation, Sonjé](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_1_1__480x480/public/2026-08/ss.jpg?itok=XAhHL6D5) 

 



 

 David Gumbs, "Sonjé," 2024. VR installation with wallpaper and/or video + 2 VR headsets. Runtime: 5:00 min.



   

 

 

 

 

 

### On view September 22, 2026 – June 5, 2027 



 

 

 

*Van Lévé: Sovereign Visions from the Creole and Maroon Caribbean and Amazonia: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, and Haiti* is an intergenerational and transhistorical exhibition organized from a uniquely Caribbean perspective. *Van Lévé* brings together internationally acclaimed artists with connections to territories in the Americas formerly under French colonial rule, placing them in dialogue with landmark historical works. It provides a historical grounding and artistic genealogy that amplifies a renaissance of Creole, Maroon, Caribbean, and Amazonian voices. As France continues to reckon with its involvement in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonial slavery on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Taubira Law recognizing both as crimes against humanity, *Van Lévé* asks: how do artists, connected by their fraught past and present connections with France, deploy critical inquiry and aesthetic elaboration to forge emancipatory dreams that can be transformed into tangible sovereign visions?

*Van Lévé* is curated by [Claire Tancons](https://www.clairetancons.com/), founder and director of [EXTEMPORA](https://www.extempora.art/), at the invitation of Professor Cécile Fromont for the Alain Locke Gallery under the auspices of Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.

Participating artists include: Mathieu Abonnenc, Franky Amété, Raphaël Barontini, Minia Biabiany, Ernest Breleur, Jean-Marc Bullet, Ronald Cyrille, Gaëlle Choisne, Kenny Dunkan, Gwladys Gambie, David Gumbs, Fabiola Jean-Louis, Clémence Lollia Hilaire, Louisa Marajo, Manuel Mathieu, Tessa Mars, Jimmy Robert, Cédrine Scheidig, and Hervé Télémaque.



 

 

 

###  About the Curator 

[Claire Tancons](https://www.clairetancons.com/) is a curator and scholar invested in discursive and curatorial investigations of the postcolonial. As a curator of processional performance and a scholar of carnival, she has traced a distinct genealogy of contemporary performance practices of the Caribbean that harks back to the region’s street festival and carnival traditions, most notably in the exhibition and book *‘En Mas’: Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean* (with Krista Thompson). Tancons has participated in the practice and discourse of globalization from a Caribbean historical consciousness through her contributions to international contemporary art biennials over a decade-long span - most recently, Sharjah Biennial 14- as well as to institutions such as Tate Modern and Haus der Kulturen der Welt. A graduate in art history and museum studies from the École du Louvre and The Courtauld Institute of Art and a former fellow of the Curatorial Studies program of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, Tancons is the recipient of grants and awards, including from the Warhol, Creative Capital, and Emily Hall Tremaine Foundations. Born in Guadeloupe, Tancons is currently based in Paris where she is the founding director of EXTEMPORA, a platform dedicated to diasporic histories, cultures, and ecologies. In 2024, she was also the Artistic Director of *Polygonal/e: Nuit Blanche*.



 

 



 

 

 

 

 

##  Upcoming Events 

 



  [### Opening Reception for "Van Lévé"

 ](/event/opening-reception-van-leve?occ_id=0)September 28, 2026

|

 All day 

 

 In Person 

 Reception details TBA 

 

 

   ![Ronald Cyrille's surrealist painting "L’Accomade"](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-08/_NTR63851.jpg?h=e16b53b2&itok=AdBEEnb5)