Munroe, Lavar

Lavar Munroe (1982, Nassau, The Bahamas) uses painting, drawing, digital collage and installation to explore marginalized spaces and people. His densely layered works, describe fantastical landscapes and characters, but just as Grimm's Fairy Tales, Munroe's works reveal disturbing narratives of false dreams, poverty and sickness; they are at once beautiful and horrifying.

Raised in an artistic and musical household, Munroe found his talent early on. Before he completed his studies, Munroe took top awards and scholarship prizes at the Central Bank Art Competition (2002-2006). In 2009, he won the first themed Central Bank Art Competition, Redefining the Portrait, staging a solo show of digitally mastered graphic drawings, Life after Life, in the space the following year. Strong solo shows followed: in 2011, he exhibited his work at Popopstudios ICVA under the title Invasion. The same year he exhibited his works at the Dadian Gallery in Washington, in the exhibition Strength and Struggle: Haiti Continued.He studied at The College of The Bahamas and pursued a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in Illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design. In 2013, he graduated from with a Masters in Fine Arts Degree from Washington University in St.Louis.

Munroe now lives and works in Baltimore, USA. Recent exhibitions include shows at the Perez Art Museum Miami, National Gallery of Bahamas, Nassau, MAXXI Museum of Art, Rome, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, and the Meadows Museum of Art, Louisiana. Works have been included in previous exhibitions at ‘Prospect 4’ triennial, New Orleans, directed by Trevor Schoonmaker, ‘All the World’s Futures’, 56th Venice Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor, 12th Dakar biennale, curated by Simon Njami, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and SCAD Museum of Art among others.