Boys

Lavar Munroe was born and raised in the impoverished, stigmatised and often marginalised Grants Town community in Nassau, Bahamas. In 2004 at the age of 21, he moved to the United States. Munroe’s work functions as a reflection of the environment of his upbringing, and draws from memories of the crude graffiti on the walls that surrounded his street. The artist maps a personal journey of survival and trauma in a world of gang-violence, drugs, murder, self-discovery, development and overcoming obstacles through self-determination.

Though inspired by the past, Munroe’s loud, energetic and unapologetic visual language confronts contemporary society and the strained and difficult relationships between authority and people of the ghetto. His work has featured in exhibitions in Europe, the Caribbean and United States as well as the 56th Venice Biennale and Dakar Biennale.

Based on photo documents and artefacts collected over a four-year span from various cities in Senegal, Munroe developed a series of fictitious narratives and characters. They are known as The Redbones, a generation of young boys who are placed on the frontline as warriors by the wealthy within society. The boys march, protest and go to war simply as a rite of passage in the hopes of one day being deemed heroes by the wealthy. Munroe’s interests lie in telling a story of success, tracing a journey that begins in an impoverished state, both mentally and physically, and which ends in a place of growth and prosperity.