Lavar Munroe is a Bahamian interdisciplinary artist working primarily in painting, cardboard sculptural installations, and mixed media drawings. His work is described as a hybrid medium between painting and relief sculpture. Taking inspiration from his home and local folklore, Munroe uses bold visual language to function as a reaction to the environment of his upbringing to challenge the stigma and judgement associated with the ghetto. His work often incorporates sentimental objects collected and given from his family and birthplace and focuses on themes of travel and its relationship to ancestry, migration, and refugees.
Munroe (b.1982, Nassau, Bahamas) earned his BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design (2007) and MFA Studio Art at Washington University, St. Louis (2013). He also attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2013) and was awarded a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2016), Benny Andrews Fellow from the MacDowell Colony (2016), and The Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity-University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC (2014). Recent solo exhibitions include Jack Bell Gallery, London, England (2022, 2021, 2014); NOMAD, Brussels, Belgium (2017); Gutstein Gallery, Savannah, GA (2016); VOLTA NY, New York, NY (2015); Dadian Gallery, Washington DC (2011); and The Central Bank, Nassau, Bahamas (2010). Notable group shows include The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (2022); Centre Pompidou Metz, FR (2022); Ichihara Lakeside Museum (2020); Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA (2020); Perez Art Museum Miami, FL (2019); Jack Bell Gallery, London, UK (2017); and Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC (2015). He has also been featured in the Art Basel Miami Beach (2022); Kampala Biennale (2020); Off Biennale Cairo (2018); 12th Dakar Biennale, Senegal, West Africa (2016); and 56th Venice Art Biennale (2015).
He is the recipient of honors and awards including the Sondheim Artscape Prize Finalist (2021), Distinguished Alums Award from Sam Fox School of Art and Design from Washington University of St. Louis (2018), Postdoctoral Award for Research Excellence from the University of North Carolina (2015), Sam Fox Dean’s Initiative Fund (2013), Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant (2013), Joan Mitchell Foundation Scholarship (2012), The Kraus Family Foundation Award (2011), and The National Endowment for the Arts Grant (2011). Munroe lives and works between Baltimore, MD and the Bahamas.