Jacoub Reyes

© Jacoub Reyes. All rights reserved.

Work

Ornamental Figurations in Motion (Innocence, Love, and Joy)

"Ornamental Figurations in Motion (Innocence, Love, and Joy)" is a monumental woodcut (8x8ft) that depicts native and invasive species of plants commonly found in South Florida and the Caribbean. In this piece, the plants take on anthropomorphic properties that are shown dancing in a circle, floating in and out of complex, geometric latticework and architecture. I was influenced by the art and architecture of José Clemente Orozco’s Hombre de fuego (1939) and the Interior of the Shah Jahan Mosque in Thatta, Pakistan. These plants represent various parts of my cultural heritage and have conceptual meanings associate with each one. I have described each one in order from bottom right and following clockwise to the center.Pineapple is an iconic crop in Puerto Rico, traditionally grown by Taino Indians since pre-Columbian times. Tainos used to place pineapples and pineapple tops outside their dwellings as symbols of friendship and hospitality, while also providing protection.Guava (originally named by Tainos as guayabo) is a berry native to the Caribbean. In 1526, a Spaniard chronicled the first known European encounter with guava on what is now Haiti. Colonial ships introduced the tree to the Philippines and India, and soon guava took root around the world. People in these new regions developed traditional guava medicine—for hypertension in South Africa, ulcers in the Philippines, antiseptics in China—naturalizing a foreign species within local cultures in just a few centuries.Devil’s Horsewhip (Achyranthes aspera) is native to South Asia and has several uses. The juice of this plant is a potent ingredient for a mixture of wall plaster. The herb is also administered in cases of dropsy. The seeds are given in hydrophobia, and in cases of snake-bites, as well as in ophthalmia and cutaneous diseases. The flowering spikes, rubbed with a little sugar, are made into pills, and given internally to people bitten by mad dogs. This species has been introduced globally and is considered a potential problematic invasive species. It is a widespread weedy pantropical species readily transported to new habitats because its spiny fruits easily detach and stick to clothes, fur, and feathers. Consequently, seeds of this species may be easily transported to new habitats by birds, mammals, and humans. For Puerto Rico (including Mona, Vieques and Culebra), this species appears in a 1924 collection made by N.L. Britton.Oleander (Nerium oleander, کنیر) is a commonly cultivated and naturalized plant throughout Pakistan. All parts of the plant is highly poisonous. Despite the danger, oleander seeds and leaves are used to make medicine. Oleander is used for heart conditions, asthma, epilepsy, cancer, painful menstrual periods, leprosy, malaria, ringworm, indigestion, and venereal disease; and to cause abortions.Monk Orchid (Oeceoclades maculata), and sometimes known as the African spotted orchid, is a terrestrial orchid species in the genus Oeceoclades that is native to tropical Africa and now naturalized in South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Florida in North America. Since 1821, it spread at an accelerated rate through tropical and subtropical America, rapidly colonizing environments with strong anthropogenic intervention (Stern, 1988). In Puerto Rico, it was first noted in 1966 and has rapidly spread throughout the entire island occupying a wide range of habitats including mogotes (karst hills), moist, wet secondary forests, and dry forests (i.e., Guánica; González-Díaz and Ackerman, 1988). In 1987, O. maculata was first collected in the rainforest of the Luquillo Mountains (Cohen and Ackerman, 2009).In Florida, O. maculata was established before 1974 either as an escapee from cultivation or through a range expansion from nearby Caribbean islands (Stern, 1988). O. maculata spread throughout Florida in less than 10 years, rapidly colonizing new habitats. By 2001, it was reported from over 70 conservation areas throughout south Florida from disturbed uplands, pine rocklands, prairie, rockland hammocks, pine flatwoods, maritime forests, and hardwood hammocks.Monk orchid has a variety of traits which contribute to its ability to invade natural areas. It tolerates a wide range of environmental factors, reproduces efficiently and grows rapidly. It is able to inhabit dry and wet forests, as well as coastal forests and disturbed areas. Each fruit produced by this plant can produce thousands to millions of small seeds. This fast-growing species is capable of growing from seedling to reproductive stage in approximately one year. It grows rapidly, colonizing new areas and forming dense stands, where it inferes with seedling germination and establishment of young, native plants.Made possible with support from the Broward County Cultural Division.

Somos Boricuas: Understanding Puerto Rican Migration and Community Building through the Arts and Humanities

The Somos Boricuas Institute uses Puerto Rican migration to the mainland United States as a case study to explore key humanities questions that are at the heart of the American migration/immigration experience. What is a citizen? What rights is a citizen entitled to and what obligations does citizenship carry with it? What roles do cultural traditions and expressive arts play in how migrant communities forge identities in their new homes and maintain cultural connections to their places of birth? Through guest lectures, workshops, hands on activities, performances, and excursions, we will address these questions through the everyday arts of music, visual arts, foodways, festival arts, and vernacular architecture in this distinctive migrant community.This program was funded by The National Endowment for the Humanities

Esconderte del mundo y en ti mismo esconderte

“Esconderte del mundo y en ti mismo esconderte” is an immersive installation by Jacoub Reyes detailing the rise and fall of the sugar plantation system in Puerto Rico. The title, translated to “hide from the world and hide in yourself,” is an excerpt from Julia de Burgos’ best-known poem, “Rio Grande de Loiza”. In this poem, Burgos’ childhood landscape emerges as a driving force for her memories and reveals the harm and grief of her island, enslaved by colonialism.Throughout this site-specific installation, Reyes uses contrasting visual tropes to create connections between displacement, memory, cultural preservation, and notions of home. He focuses on the lasting social, political, and ecological effects of the colonial experience through the interior of a sugar mill ruin. The installation features a variety of multi-media, including video, audio, assemblage, screen prints, woodcuts, painting, and textile works. Through this, he aims to excavate histories lost, forgotten, and buried beneath us.

South Florida Cultural Consortium

MIAMI, FLORIDA – The South Florida Cultural Consortium (SFCC) announces eighteen (18) awards to
preeminent South Florida artists through its 2022-2023 Visual and Media Artists Program. The Consortium, an alliance of the arts councils of Broward, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach Counties, has recognized ten individuals from Miami-Dade County, four from Broward County, two from Palm Beach County, and two from Monroe County. The awards are conferred at either the $15,000 or $7,500 level. These grants are among the largest such honors accorded by local arts agencies to visual and media artists in the United States. Celebrating 35 years in 2023 (established in 1988), the SFCC has awarded over $4 million in grants to more than 300 artists. In addition to receiving the grant, the artists take part in an exhibition hosted and organized by a visual arts institution in one of the five counties. The exhibition featuring the work of the 2023 recipients will take place at The Art and Culture Center/Hollywood at 1650 Harrison Street, Hollywood, FL 33020, October 14,
2023 - January 24, 2024.The recipients were selected through a two-tier panel process which included the participation of regional and national arts experts. The 2023 regional panel, whose adjudications are based on the evaluation of the artists' work as evidenced by the work samples submitted, included: Ariella Wolens, Bryant-Taylor Curator, NSU Art
Museum Fort Lauderdale (Broward); Carrington Ware, Artist, SFCC FY 20-21 Recipient, Professor, Florida International University (Broward); Véronique Côté, Galleries Director, University Galleries, Florida Atlantic University (Palm Beach); Helena Gomez, Curator, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, (Miami-Dade); and Elvis
Fuentes, Executive Director, Coral Gables Museum, (Miami-Dade).The submissions selected by the regional panel for further consideration were forwarded for final adjudication and selection to the national panel, which was comprised of: Natasha Logan, Deputy Director, CREATIVE TIME,
New York, NY; Theresa Papanikolas, Ph.D Ann M. Barwick Curator of American Art, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; and Jack Schneider, Curatorial Associate, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Te escribí esta carta

"Por dolor", Woodblock print on Banana Leaf, 16.75 x 22"
"Por miedo", Paper Collage, 16.75 x 22"

Posters

TOP ____ GENERAL INQUIRIES ABOUT PAKISTAN FROM AN AI-GENERATED AMERICAN COLONIAL LENS

Jacoub Reyes is an interdisciplinary artist who examines the relationship between his cultural heritages. In this project, he focuses on his childhood and asks fundamental questions to unravel his tangled and confusing upbringing. His father, an immigrant from Pakistan, had partial visitation rights throughout his early years. This turbulent and fragmented relationship between father & son, Islam, and cultural traditions left Reyes wondering if the two were mutually exclusive.TOP ____ GENERAL INQUIRIES ABOUT PAKISTAN FROM AN AI-GENERATED AMERICAN COLONIAL LENS explores popular culture, religion, love, and politics through a list of inquiries sent through several search engines. The results reflect algorithmic patterns that occurred on December 14, 2022, from 10:08 AM to 3:32 PM EST. By using technology, Reyes asks search engines questions about his identity, relying on machine learning to shape the perception of his personal experience. These functions allow for second-guessing and exposing humans' trusting nature as a survival response, closely mimicking Reyes' upbringing. Ultimately, he aims to reclaim an identity beyond AI, ethnicity, or nationality and trust in his lived experiences instead.ON VIEW AT THE ASIAN ART MUSEUM, SAN FRANCISCO, CA

University of California, San Francisco's Library Artist in Residence

For the 2022 Artist in Residence program, I will examine UCSF’s Tobacco Control Archives, IDL’s Sugar Collection, and Japanese Woodblock Print Collection to create a narrative surrounding the crops and their relation to colonialism. This health-centered project will expose the inequities found in Puerto Rico and draw similarities with Japan and the rest of the Caribbean by shedding light on past issues and how they are prevalent today and continue to affect the future. With this, I aim to bring awareness to colonialism’s role in global health, well-being, and economy.Read the Interview HereWatch Woodblock Prints and Medicine: Sugar and Tobacco in the Caribbean Artist Presentation HereRead Puerto Rico and the American Plantation System, a short research article by Jacoub Reyes HereWatch Tradition, Craft, and Technology: Making Woodblock Prints with New Media HereRead about the Sugar Works exhibition HereDownload Jacoub’s Zoom background image to help promote the Artist in Residence program in your next Zoom meeting: Download

a change of worlds

I would like to acknowledge that this project took place on the unceded ancestral lands of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People. A people that are still here, continuing to honor and bring to light their ancient heritage. With gratitude to the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe, we pay our respects.Over a year in the making
This 2-week initiative, in collaboration with Sidereal Fine Art Press, consisted of three workshops and two large woodblock print demonstrations with the community in the surrounding area. We pulled over 180 impressions collectively. During this time, I created a two-plate, 10-color woodblock print and a 4x8 foot, 5-color woodblock print as well. These print were made to support the efforts of the Duwamish Tribal Members and their struggle toward federal recognition.Press Release
Over seventy-five community members participated in the week of art events fully funded by 4Culture and the City of Tukwila Art Commission. Flexcut Carving Tools donated beginner's tool kits and other art supplies. Jacoub Reyes will be gifting a 4x8 foot woodblock print and two 3x3 foot woodblock print for the Duwamish Tribe Annual Gala auction and fundraiser.Reyes and Coppola met in 2020 at Sidereal Fine Art Press during a studio visit. In 2021, Reyes proposed a collaboration between the two. Coppola is a respected and longstanding small business owner and artist. After learning about the history of the Duwamish Tribe, in Tukwila, it was evident to Reyes that this collaboration should center around and honor this indigenous group.“My practice often revolves around systemic issues and decolonization. When I proposed the idea of working with the Duwamish and the community to Sheila, it was clear that the collaboration should happen as Sheila has relationships with the Duwamish Tribe and is active in her community. I’m passionate about partnering with indigenous and marginalized groups to uplift their voice and stand with them. The work we’re doing here to foster a safe place of trust for the City of Tukwila and the Duwamish Tribe is necessary and important.”Support
If you would like to learn more about the tribe or donate to their cause, please visit the Duwamish Tribe Website and Donate to the Duwamish TribeHumankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. - Chief Si'ahlFunded by 4Culture and the Tukwila Arts Commission.

juracán

Juracán, Woodcut and acrylic, 30x30"

donde estoy (where i stand), alfred, NY

This project was based on found materials sourced around Alfred University's campus. I dove into the library's special collections and archives to research source material on five Taino vessels housed in the Krevolin Collection, located in the Alfred Ceramic Museum's archives. The opportunity to hold my ancestors works of art and devotional objects was surreal. I created a book detailing these uninvestigated works by providing updated pictures, context, and background information. Through this, the works were informed by the research, site-specific locations and plants, and materials.

Public works

countable/uncountable

For this exhibition, I constructed a boat out of found materials. The sail is made of used undergarments and clothing. The rest of the boat is made of found pallets and aluminum canisters that held oil on top of a tarp. I wanted to create a piece that viewers could walk around and interact with. On the boat, I had placed burlap sacks that held Caribbean staples such as yucca and boniato along with lace handkerchiefs, twine, rope and plastic bottles with messages in them. Viewers were able to read the notes and pick up items on the boat to see how it made connections with the surrounding works.This installation is my response to The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault. I created this makeshift raft in response to the stories that my grandfather would tell me about his voyage from Cuba to America. People would have to create sails and anything else they needed out of materials that were readily available to them.

dar y recibir

Dar y recibir (to give and receive) is a print installation that incorporates Voodoo, Santeria and Christian imagery to describe how colonialism has altered the life and religion of Caribbean people. Cloth was a major carrier of disease and aided in the transference of small pox and other illnesses from European settlers to indigenous populations. This simple act of commerce ended in the almost complete destruction of native peoples. This piece is located diagonally from a Catholic church and offers a counterpoint for conversation of life before colonization.The center scene with three crosses highlights how the Christian religion was used, in addition to other tactical ways of gaining power and influence. Here, a child takes his last breath as an angel flies out of his mouth, symbolizing the soul leaving his body. Three crucifixes show bodies in a transcending motion as they levitate above the little boy. Their bodies are riddled with several dots, which represent areas affected by small pox. Many passersby also describe the figures as shooting range targets- an interestingly simple and profound connection.The pyramid segment depicts an alter dedicated to the deity of the crossroads, Elegua. This Orisha, commonly found in Santeria, is derived from Voodoo. I chose Elegua for this installation because the building is on one of four corners, that being a crossroads. He also holds the keys to the past, present, and future which is the perfect descriptor for the installation as a whole.The 3-dimensional cloth element segment highlights the transference of diseases from Europeans to Native peoples. The cloth is printed with a woodblock design commonly found on Victorian wallpapers. The use of multiple art styles that span from the Renaissance to today is a representation of how prevalent colonialism is entwined in our everyday lives.The segment of various square prints highlights the work of students that attended my woodblock pattern workshop in Tlaquepaque, Mexico. I wanted to incorporate their designs into the final installation because they have personally faced colonialism from Spain and the United States. Including their stories and images fostered local community involvement and translated the meaning of the installation even deeper. Their shared history and trials of experiencing colonialism, similar religions and personal trials show how cyclical the experience of the native person is and how often our patterns connect.

New World Strange Land

Repetition, ritual and disease- these elements have the ability to spread from person to person through physical and spiritual environments, some a choice and some more intrusive and involuntary much like the pandemic we see today.I chose to print these woodblocks onto hand-printed floral cloth. The abstracted images of the altar to Elegua and the child experiencing small pox become ornamental and commonplace when placed in an external area. This parallels the idea about how our past informs the present and future. Many are still focused on forgetting as a way of acceptance and moving forward.

the plant we found turn into a flower but shortly died thereafter.

This installation was based on a series of interviews I conducted with people of color that had immigrated to the United States. The prompts not only covered logistical aspects of their move but also the emotional responses and effects that it had on them. They carry these experiences with them everyday and it continues to shape them into the people they are becoming. Viewers were able to hear their first-hand experiences and connect with them through their own words.As I was transcribing these interviews, I began to draw images that connected me to the interviewee. I created two images; hands interlocked with one another and dried roses floating on water. These images represented something beautiful yet tragic that was found throughout each of their stories: the prospect of a new life and the absence of their previous one.Audio clips and transcripts of the interviews can be found below.

The New Silk Road

Columbus set out to find valuable silks and spices to bring back to Europe. What he found instead was something far more valuable- an unadulterated culture that exploited for labor and resources. Silk turns to sugar and becomes the luxury of the rich in Europe and the fodder for the poor in the New World. These woodblock prints: Columbus' ship, "Santa Maria: Dios nos bendiga", a chicken fight "Pelea de gallos", and the shroud of Turin "Shroud", are all printed on found silk. These three images represent conquest, culture clash and religious influence that was integrated in the new found colonies.

Transformed Beliefs

Each of these images depicts common Biblical themes and their relation to individual experience. My upbringing as a person of color in a house split between Catholicism and Islam had a profound affect on how I viewed and interacted with belief systems. Most Christian imagery seemed disconnected from the central story and meaning. On the other hand, Islam art in the mosques centered around mostly geometric design which creates an open interpretation. These two religions both rarely showed black and brown figures as the center of the story.In this series, I merged these religious and cultural ideas found in my heritage together to create a narrative that evokes inclusion. The first image, "Two Figures (after Dürer)" is a two meter long woodcut that takes inspiration from the story of Adam & Eve. This image depicts two native figures segmented by a snake coiled around a bone and pomegranate. The snake in this images represents not only evil, but also good."Pietà (after Michelangelo)" depicts a mother holding her dying baby, a similar scene to Mary holding her son, Jesus. The shadow around the infant is that of a slain lamb. The angels below her are mourning the death of her son as she stands on a crescent moon. In this image, the figures were modeled by women that have lost their children in war-ridden areas."Road to Damascus (after Géricault)" depicts a raft of people fighting for their lives in the midst of a tumultuous ocean. They have sewed their clothes together to create a sail as pieces of cloth are carried away with the wind. The vain hope of surviving long enough to reach land.
Human life abandoned to its fate."Flagellation (after Gregorio Fernández)" shows a black figure tied to a tree. Much like Jesus, most of the Caribbean and black population were subject to harsh conditions and death. Here, his somber gaze is directed to a single falling fig leaf, representative of the fall of the global economy that has been created from exploitation and offering a chance for repentance and forgiveness of these wrong-doings. Faith that the tree would bear fruit also resonates in this piece as a sign of hope."Rebuilt Temple" is the final piece in this series. It depicts the entrance and minarets of a mosque with a Catholic church in between. The designs found on the outside are icons that overlap both beliefs such as eyes, suns, dots, moons, stars, and other various lines.

Shadow Play: Veiled Truths

"Shadow Play" explores the influence of European colonialism on Caribbean islands. The shadows are created by lights that shine through hand cut paper. These small stencil-like images are suspended in the space and create large shadows on the wall. The "demons" depicted throughout this interactive installation were how the natives were viewed by European colonizers. The natives were considered uneducated savages that needed the European structure to achieve the graces of God and the fortune of future industrialization. The tension between these opposing themes creates a narrative that the audience can follow and apply to their own stories.

Garden of Gethsemane

Chicken feet and chicken feet pearls dangle from the rafters of the gallery. These elements have layered meanings based in religion and geography. A "salt of the earth" spiral can be found on the floor. As the humidity in Florida dissolved the salt, the audience tracked ghostly footprints around the gallery. This exhibition showcased the woodcuts and accompanying prints so that viewers could see the process behind the image.

Arabesque at the Albin Polasek Museum

As I delve into my Southeast Asian heritage, I have become inspired by the complex patterns and elements of design found in non-western art. As I find ways to push the limits of the square, I unlock an infinite realm of possibilities within this restriction. Here, I focus on various elements to create a narrative based on non-representational design.

Workshops

Public and private workshops are available through appointment only. Please contact us with the time, date, and number of participants for a quote. Available classes and services include large-scale woodblock carving and printing, screen printing, experimental printmaking, murals, critique, curation, consultation, and branding. Please visit our "Contact" page to reach out with any information detailing your request. Thank you!

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About

"I want to be a catalyst for change- to create an equitable community around different modes of practice, decolonize education and eliminate gatekeeping to encourage critical thought and discourse at any stage, and open museum and institutional spaces to self-taught artists and curators that highlight underserved and marginalized voices." - Jacoub ReyesI excavate my individual and ancestral biographies to unearth my cultural heritage. My layered identity invites me to see taxonomy as a system that requires decolonization. My mother is a first-generation Catholic Caribbean; my father is Muslim and a South Asian immigrant. My mom moved us from the industrial inner-city of the North to the expansive suburbia of the South, just as the war on Iraq gave way to a new wave of racism and Islamophobia. Later, I began to name the societal pressures that led to the self-removal of large parts of my racial and ethnic tapestry that reduced my proximity to whiteness. Much of my work synthesizes this research and uses the body metaphorically to symbolize complex internal emotions associated with the colonial and diasporic experience.My caretaking work in gardens led to research on restoring natural areas through reintroducing and cultivating native plants, animals, and insects. I found myself outside in the Florida sun many days, working with many of the subjects and themes now present in my work. The anthropomorphic figures of the natural world ingrained in my large woodcarvings and installations identify unresolved tension and stress. I am invested in dismantling the boundaries between oral history, academia, personal stories, and ancestral trauma; instead, I see these as essential parts of a complete narrative. I aim to redefine the trauma responses of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn as instruments of colonization. Primarily, my work focuses on re-contextualizing Caribbean art through a diasporic lens.I challenge the contemporary communication of the mixed-race or multi-cultural experience. Mixed cultural identity is not relegated to a hyphenated background; but rather a sum of all parts that are interdependent and foundational. The faceless figures of invasive and native plants examine the multiplicity of colonization. Displaying native and invasive plants in various tensions and settings upheaves how we see and experience race, class, and ability. My process to create these works involves finding materials, making tools, and printing without a press or traditional technologies. I work within a space deeply grounded in tradition but flourishes only due to innovation and creativity.BIO
Jacoub Reyes is an multidisciplinary artist based in Central and South Florida, primarily working in printmaking and large-scale installation. His work utilizes experimental techniques to unravel his complex mixed-cultural heritage to build an imagined future based on belonging and resistance.He has had exhibitions and interactive public performances at the Asian Art Museum, The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, Frontera Galeria Urbana- Guadalajara, Museum of Latin American Art, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, International Print Center New York, The Mennello Museum of American Art, and Aqua Art Miami, among others. Reyes received awards and fellowships from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, South Florida Cultural Consortium Grant, 4Culture Grant, Broward County's Artist Innovation Grant, The Puffin Foundation, Allies in Arts Grant, Immerse Artist Grant, and Awesome Grant. Notable residencies include MAC en el Barrio Residency at Hunter College, NYC (2023), The University of California-San Francisco's Library Artist in Residence (2022-23), Alfred University's BIPOC Artist Residency (2022), and Ma's House BIPOC Artist Residency (2021). Reyes is the Artistic Director for the City of Boynton Beach's Quantum Eco-Park and President of the Florida Printmakers Society.Reyes received his BFA from the University of Central Florida in 2013, where he was awarded the J.R. Hopes Scholarship.

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