Citizen Projects

Persistent Color: Abstract works by Kenwyn Crichlow

Presented by Citizen Projects, Accra in collaboration with Atlanta Art Week, with support from representing gallery Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles.

Persistent Color presents 6 large scale paintings by Trinidadian abstract painter Kenwyn Crichlow (b 1951). Crichlow's masterful use of light and color, gesture and brushstroke will be on view in Atlanta for the first time from October 3rd - 11th, 2025 at The Works, Atlanta GA. Curated by Aida Esi Hayfron-Benjamin of Citizen Projects. 

Artist Bio(s)

Kenwyn Crichlow is a painter, arts leader, and educator with a studio practice in Curepe, Trinidad. His works are monumental gestural, abstract paintings rendered in oil,  influenced by Trinidad's topographic and cultural Caribbean landscape.

In 2024, he received the Hummingbird Medal Gold, a National Award presented by the President of Trinidad and Tobago for his service in the arts. He is the Board Chair of the National Museum and Art Gallery, TT (2019-2025) and the founding coordinator of the Visual Arts Program in the Department of Creative and Festival Arts at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, TT (1968 - 2016). Crichlow's writing, lectures, and contributions as juror both of fine art and carnival have had significant impact on the arts in the Caribbean.

Crichlow received a solo exhibition, Incandescence, with Diane Rosenstein Gallery in 2023, and his paintings were recently included in Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Permanent Collection, curated by Kevin Moore, at The Kemper Museum of Art (2024) in Kansas City and Keeping Time, curated by Ekow Eshun and Karon Hepburn, at Gallery 1957, in Accra, Ghana (2024).

Crichlow’s paintings are in the permanent collection of the Barbados National Art Gallery, Barbados; Mervyn Awon Collection, Barbados; and the Central Bank Museum, National Art Museum, and Republic Bank Art Collection, all in Trinidad. The artist received a MPhil from the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica (2019); BA from Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK (1978), and a Teacher's Certificate from Mausica Teachers College, Trinidad and Tobago (1972). His paintings were exhibited in solo presentations with Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles, at Independent 20th Century, New York City, NY (2023), and in solo shows at Y Gallery, Port of Spain, TT (2013-2022).

Other group exhibitions include First Caribbean Biennial, Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1992); Caribbean Art Now, Commonwealth Institute, London, UK (1986); Caribbean Artists Today, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA (1990), Caribbean Visions: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, curated by Samella Lewis, Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL (1995-97), Season of Renewal, 50th Anniversary Exhibition, The Museum of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica (2012), among others.

Organization Bio

Citizen Projects founded by Aida Esi Hayfron-Benjamin in 2022 is an independent curatorial practice turned brick and mortar gallery space in Accra, Ghana. Collaborating with emerging and mid-career artists from Africa and the diaspora, Citizen Projects is focussed on developing slow, thoughtful and insightful projects with artists - ensuring curatorial depth by consulting with leading curators in the field.

Spearheaded by Aida Esi, Citizen Projects completed their first annual group residency in Benin City, Nigeria in collaboration with Angels and Muse (BlackMuse) in May of 2025. The residency included artists and curators for a focussed week on the rich history of Benin City and the Kingdom’s significant contribution to bronze casting in West Africa.