Awilda Sterling Works On View at Gavlak

Last month, Gavlak Palm Beach unveiled “Unbound Rhythms,” a solo exhibition of works by Puerto Rican artist Awilda Sterling. Sterling is an acclaimed painter, performance artist, and dancer who is renowned for exploring themes of identity, gender, diaspora, language, and migration, challenging conventional cultural, national, and gendered boundaries. “Unbound Rhythms” is the artist’s premier exhibition at a United States art gallery and showcases her new works, including . . . blindfolded, her most ambitious and impactful work to date. The exhibition is on view through June 1.

Sterling’s …blindfolded first appeared in “Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept,” which Sterling created on-site at the museum for the exhibition. This work is part of ongoing series of dance-drawings, fusing Afro-Caribbean dance, music, drawing, and performance. During the performance of …blindfolded, Sterling blindfolded herself while listening to improvisational jazz, composed by Miguel Zenón, one of the most influential and innovative jazz musicians of his generation. Moving freely, Sterling translates the music through her body into movements on the surface of the paper with sharp actions and a sense of playfulness.

The dance-drawings explode with colors, lines, textures, and depth. Marks of bright pastel extrude beyond the boundaries of the black construction paper onto the walls.

Sterling’s practice is deeply informed by her experience as a woman of color and her Afro-Caribbean upbringing in Puerto Rico. Improvisation and abstraction are key elements in her work. She does what feels honest, and centers herself in a vocabulary rooted in traditional Afro-Caribbean dances, cultures, and religions. She aims to bring these traditions into a more contemporary focus. Building from these traditional religious dances, she creates a vocabulary of movement and gestures that translates to active abstraction filled with joy.

For more information about the exhibition, click here. Visit the gallery Monday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.