Cyle Warner

Interviews by Brainard Carey

Cyle Warner is a Brooklyn-based artist of Afro-Caribbean descent. A recent graduate of the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Photography, he works across mediums, often using fabric and photographs inherited from family to explore his concept of Dis. In 2022 he attended the prestigious Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art.

Welancora Gallery is proud to present Weh Dem? De Sparrow Catcher?, a solo exhibition of new work by Cyle Warner (b. 2001), on view from July 27 to October 10, 2023. Warner’s first exhibition at the gallery brings together a reimagined archive of photographs and textiles to reveal a very personal exploration of his family’s life in the Caribbean.

Sourced from the Warner family archive, the photographs are layered, recomposed and enlarged to conjure feelings of curiosity about Warner’s elders and their life in the Caribbean. The works on view raise a number of questions; namely, what would life be like if there had been no migration to the United States? The photos, ranging from the mid 1940s to the early to mid 1970s, depict family members when they were permanently residing in the Caribbean. The hazy quality and sepia tones, as well as what’s visible, what’s further highlighted, and what’s left to be desired all lend themselves to the artist’s fractured understanding of a time in the Caribbean that he never experienced first hand.

Cyle Warner a vessel a jam slow, 2023 Various fabrics and inkjet on fabric on wooden frame. 76 x 64 inches 193 x 162.6 cms. Photo: Copyright The Artist Courtesy of Welancora Gallery.

Cyle Warner Album Page II (Debating with Powell and the Queen), 2023 Various Fabrics and Inkjet on Fabric on Stained Wooden Frame 15 1/2 x 11 inches 39.4 x 27.9 cms. Photo: Copyright The Artist Courtesy of Welancora Gallery.

Cyle Warner I don’t want to go, 2023 Archival pigment print with collage on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 5 x 7 inches 12.7 x 17.8 cms Edition of 2.