The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery is pleased to present “What is the Poesis of Dis-Possession? Cartographies of Spirit and Signal,” an exhibition featuring the work of Trinidad-born, Chicago-based artist Sherwin Ovid. The exhibition opens Jan. 12 and runs through Feb. 19.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the artist will explore the themes of migration with curator Marissa H. Baker, visiting art history faculty in the Visual Arts Program, as part of the Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series. The lecture will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 11 in Brookens Auditorium on the lower level of Brookens Library. The discussion will examine how art helps explain the experiences of people from the Caribbean who move to other parts of the world while maintaining connections to their culture.

Immediately following this conversation, the UIS Visual Arts Gallery will host an exhibition reception from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. This event is free and open to the public.

The exhibition presents recent works by Ovid that prompt the viewer to reconsider how the Caribbean has been historically imagined and represented as a region. Ovid layers forms and materials evocative of sea creatures, the invisible network of submarine internet cables and coordinate systems of cartography to examine how the movement of people and digital signals might constitute new but invisible forms of relation across the Caribbean and its diaspora.

Ovid is a visual artist who works with experimental processes and nontraditional materials to create unexpected images. He is an assistant professor of instruction in the Art, Theory, Practice Department at Northwestern University. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree  from the School of the Art Institute and an Master of Fine Arts degree  from the University of Illinois Chicago, where he was an Abraham Lincoln Fellow.

Ovid’s work has been supported by numerous grants and awards, including the Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Foundation Achievement Award, the Baker Faculty Research Grant at Northwestern University, Make a Wave Award from 3Arts and as a Field Trip/Field Notes/Field Guide Fellow at the University of Chicago.

Ovid has exhibited his work widely, including at the Chicago Cultural Center; Demon Leg Gallery, New York; Cleve Carney Museum of Art; Lubeznik Center for the Arts; National Museum of Mexican Art; Gallery 400, University of Illinois Chicago; Union Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; MANA Contemporary, Chicago; Haitian American Museum of Chicago; Chicago Artists Coalition; Prison Neighborhood Arts Project, Chicago; and Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago. Ovid’s work has been featured in Jordan Peele and Nia DaCosta’s 2021 film “Candyman”, Lee Daniel’s 2024 Netflix feature “The Deliverance” and Lena Waithe’s Showtime drama “The Chi.”

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery has a strong tradition of presenting thought-provoking exhibitions that engage with urgent cultural and political questions. Past exhibitions have brought nationally and internationally recognized artists to Springfield, generating dialogue on issues ranging from democracy to identity to social justice. “What is the Social Poesis of Dis-possession? Cartographies of Spirit and Signal” continues this tradition by foregrounding voices often excluded from dominant narratives and creating a space for reflection, dialogue and collective imagination.

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery is centrally located on the UIS campus in the Health and Sciences Building, Room 201 (HSB 201). Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. For more information and upcoming exhibitions, visit the UIS Visual Arts Gallery website.