BIRTH PAPERS | ON VIEW NOW | ST. THOMAS

DETAILS

ON VIEW NOW THROUGH OCT 9, 2026 | 81C

Gallery Hours 81C | Tues - Fri, 5-8PM | Free Admission (DIRECTIONS)

CLOSED FOR HURRICANE SEASON / ANNUAL MAINTENANCE SEPT 1  -  OCT 1. 

YOU CAN SCHEDULE A GALLERY TOUR BY CONTACTING US DURING THIS TIME. 

September Gallery House: APPOINTMENT ONLY 

St. Thomas 

VIEW THE EXHIBITION CATALOG HERE

SHOW DESCRIPTION:

BIRTH PAPERS is a traveling exhibition of Caribbean design that considers how objects carry memory, identity, and proof of belonging. Taking its title from the documents that certify origin, authorship, and legitimacy, the exhibition asks what other kinds of records can be held in material form.

Through furniture, lighting, textiles, sculpture, and functional objects, the works on view move between utility and storytelling, revealing design as a language of inheritance, adaptation, and cultural imagination. Bringing together designers and artists from across the Caribbean and its diaspora, BIRTH PAPERS proposes that objects can act as counter-documents: preserving histories, challenging fixed ideas of origin, and opening new ways of understanding Caribbean creative practice.

CURATOR BIO:

Azi Jones, originally from Kingston, Jamaica, is a curator, arts writer, and researcher focused on Caribbean art, architecture, and material culture. Their practice examines how artists and designers build meaning, markets, and cultural infrastructure beyond traditional art capitals, with particular attention to questions of memory, space, mobility, and globalization. Jones is the founding director and curator of BIRTH PAPERS, a multi-site design exhibition

series opening across Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2026. The project reframes the Caribbean’s “iconic ordinary”—materials such as zinc, palm fronds, and plastic chairs—as a contemporary design language and living archive, situating regional production within global conversations around craft, industry, and everyday form.

Jones has held curatorial, conservation, and gallery roles at institutions including the National Gallery of Barbados, the Princeton University Art Museum, the National Gallery of Jamaica, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, and TERN Gallery, where they currently work as Curatorial Projects & Artist Development Associate in Nassau. Across these posts, Jones has overseen exhibition planning, artist development strategy, art-fair presentations, and international logistics,

and has supported sales and collector engagement at major fairs including The Armory Show, Untitled Miami Beach, and 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. They have also worked in artist liaison and sales roles at R & Company and currently serve as a Researcher in 20th- and 21st-Century Design at Phillips, contributing market research and catalogue texts for major

auctions, and will join Southern Guild’s New York team in 2026. As a writer, Jones explores the politics of memory, space, and material culture across the Caribbean and its diaspora through exhibition essays, catalogues, and criticism. They are

currently part of the Burnaway Magazine Writing Fellowship and are contributing forthcoming writing to the ARAK Collection of Contemporary African Art. Jones holds a B.A. in African American Studies with minors in Art History, Visual Art, and

Architecture from Princeton University.

DETAILS

REVEARTH -- ORIGIN - IMMERSIVE ART EXHIBITION

OPENING OCT 24TH -- ST THOMAS

5-10PM | FREE ADMISSION | CASH BAR 

Show Description:

ReVearth: Origin is an immersive, multidisciplinary exhibition exploring home, identity, material, and transformation through the perspective of Virgin Islands creative collective ReVearth.

Led by designer Kali Merrifield, alongside Kenli Merrifield and Virgil Rightenburg, ReVearth approaches the U.S. Virgin Islands as both subject and foundation—a place that has shaped the collective’s visual language, creative instincts, and understanding of the world around them. Origin presents the islands not through an idealized lens, but as they are experienced: vibrant and complicated, beautiful and imperfect, deeply familiar and continually evolving.

Moving across sewing, painted textiles, sculpture, furniture, photography, installation, and other forms of making, the exhibition transforms 81C’s main gallery into an environment rooted in the textures, colors, materials, contradictions, and rhythms of Caribbean life. Individual works move between personal expression and collective experience, reflecting both the striking beauty of the Virgin Islands and the realities that exist alongside it.

Central to ReVearth’s practice is the transformation of existing and overlooked materials. Upcycling becomes more than a production method; it functions as part of the exhibition’s larger philosophy. Materials belonging to the present are reconsidered, reconstructed, and given new possibilities—connecting ideas of resourcefulness, reinvention, and imagination to a broader vision of the future.

Origin represents both a point of departure and a declaration of identity. It is ReVearth’s exploration of where they come from, how that place continues to shape what they create, and what can emerge from it next. At 81C, these ideas expand beyond individual objects into an immersive exhibition experience: a portrait of home constructed through material, memory, observation, and making.-- The Curators, 81C, Charlotte Amalie, 2026

 
Artist Statement:

Origin is a reflection of our anchor—our home, our foundation, and the place where we have been nurtured, shaped, and forged. The Virgin Islands continue to inspire how we see, how we think, and what we create.

ReVearth is the brainchild of lead designer Kali Merrifield, with his brothers Kenli Merrifield and Virgil Rightenburg contributing their perspectives throughout the journey. We are Caribbean. We are U.S. Virgin Islanders. We come from a place that has given us a strong sense of identity, creativity, resourcefulness, and a perspective that is uniquely our own.

With Origin, we want to portray our home as we experience it—not as perfect or imperfect, and not simply as positive or negative. We want to show the islands authentically, through what we have lived, observed, and felt.

Our work reflects the beauty and vibrancy of our environment, but it also acknowledges the realities around us. We are inspired by the colors, personalities, energy, and striking highs within ourselves and our neighbors, alongside the challenges and shortcomings that are also part of our communities. Each piece is an interpretation of these experiences.

ReVearth has never been limited to a single medium. Sewing, fabric painting, sculpture, furniture, photography, and other forms of making allow us to communicate different parts of our world and bring our ideas into physical form.

Much of what we create begins with upcycled materials—things whose usefulness or value may have been overlooked. That process is at the heart of ReVearth. We take what already exists, the Now, and transform it into something new: the Future. It is a practice of seeing possibility where others might not.

Origin is where we come from, how we see the world, and the foundation for where we are going. It represents ReVearth as it continues to grow beyond a collection of individual works into something larger: a movement, an evolving practice, and a dream still unfolding. -- ReVearth, Charlotte Amalie, 2026

DETAILS:

81C St. Croix | Gallery Hours: 7 days weekly | free admission

LOCATED AT PROSPERITY FARM DISTILLERY 

SHOW DESCRIPTION:

"This exhibition showcases artwork created by young artists from 81C Arts' Expression Through the Arts summer program, alongside digital animations from students in the DigiLocal after-school program and selected works from students in the wider community. At its heart, this show is a celebration of student voice — their thoughts, perspectives, and evolving sense of self. Through painting, poetry, and digital media, each piece offers a glimpse into how these artists see and experience the world.

Many of the works are paired with poetry created through a collaborative ekphrastic process, where students responded to one another’s artwork with written reflections. Other pieces feature blackout poetry, formed from pages of The Great Gatsby, where students shaped their own meanings from a shared text. Throughout the exhibition, these approaches highlight the power of interpretation, showing how different voices can emerge from shared experiences.

A significant portion of the work includes self-portraits, where students used color, symbolism, and words to express identity and self-perception. Together, these works reflect creativity that is thoughtful, expressive, and deeply personal. Each piece invites you to look closely, to read, and to listen — and to experience the world through the eyes of these young artists."

-The Curators, 81C, 2026