BIRTH PAPERS | OPENING JULY 2026 | ST. THOMAS

DETAILS

Opening Reception July 11th | 5-10PM | 81C + The Camille Pissarro House 

The show will be on view through Fall, 2026 

81C St. Thomas 

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:

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