Anina Major is a visual artist from the Bahamas specializing in ceramics. Her decision to voluntarily establish a home contrary to the location in which she was born and raised motivates her to investigate the relationship between self and place as a site of negotiation. By utilizing the vernacular of craft to reclaim experiences and relocate displaced objects, her practice exists at the intersection of nostalgia, and identity. She holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies, including the Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship and serving as a mentor for the Saint Heron Ceramics Residency Program. Her work has been exhibited in The Bahamas, across the United States, and Europe and featured in permanent collections that include the National Gallery of The Bahamas, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
‘The Universe Within’
February 19 – March 19, 2022
Collective exhibition curated By Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy
Anina Major’s installation features porcelain “straw dolls”—a take on a traditional craft and souvenir from her native Bahamas—watching over four plaited vessels, personifying the elements of water, fire, earth, and wind. Her archetypical ceramic weaving technique developed through her mission to redefine the value of the labor, materials, and people associated with straw doll production. Dolls and vessels together demonstrate Major’s artistic evolution while discussing the marketplace as a political space and ways of cultivating a sense of belonging.
Anina Major focuses on histories of the African Diaspora through the act of making, specifically basket weaving, and the positioning of cultural wares in an installation designed like a tropical island stage set. Clay baskets, created from traditional weaving practices, are displayed on a pier-like table above ceramic shards forming a floor of seashells. A neon sign reiterating the title of the installation, All Us Come Across Water (2021), captures the contradictions of commodifying culture.
Soda-fired stoneware, sponge
17 1/4 × 17 × 19 1/4 in
43.8 × 43.2 × 48.9 cm
Raku-fired stoneware
6 × 4 × 1 in
15.2 × 10.2 × 2.5 cm
Stoneware, sea glass, sand
18 × 18 × 15 in
45.7 × 45.7 × 38.1 cm
Stoneware
13 × 13 × 13 in
33 × 33 × 33 cm
Anina Major’s practice is research based with collecting oral histories and anthropological archives, her work challenges postcolonial ideology. Major is a cultural advocate who opens critical dialogue around developing cultural identities and building the appropriate platforms for this discourse.
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