Christopher Cozier’s ‘Tropical Night’: the artist explains his epic series of drawings at MoMA
Christopher Cozier’s Tropical Night is a sprawling, deeply personal series of over 260 drawings that explore the layered histories and identities of the Caribbean. In conversation with MoMA, Cozier discusses the origins, themes, and evolving nature of this monumental work, sharing insights into his creative process and the historical moments that shaped it.
Christopher’s studio had no fixed walls at the time. It moved with him from hotel rooms to friends’ homes, echoing the region’s layered and mobile histories. This mobility reflects in Tropical Night, where drawings are suspended on clips and arranged anew with each exhibition, emphasizing the fluidity of history and memory.
The series touches on key political moments in Trinidad’s past, including the revolutionary 1970s and the 1990s insurrection, woven through recurring symbols like maps, AK-47s, and childhood birthday cakes. These images form a counternarrative to the conventional tropical idyll, inviting viewers into a complex, ever-shifting dialogue.
To explore the full interview and learn more about Tropical Night, visit MoMA’s article here: moma.org/magazine/articles/1340.
About Christopher Cozier
Christopher Cozier is an artist, writer, and curator whose work traces the cultural and political textures of the Caribbean and its diaspora. He studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art (BFA, 1986) and later earned an MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 1988, before returning to Trinidad, where he lives and works to this day.
His practice moves across drawing, installation, video, and print: disciplines through which he explores the lived realities and symbolic residues of post-colonial society. With a focus on subtle visual language and critical reflection, Cozier often challenges received narratives and reorients our understanding of the region and its global entanglements.
Over the years, his work has been shown internationally in major exhibitions, including the 5th and 7th Havana Biennials, Infinite Island at the Brooklyn Museum (2007), Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic at Tate Liverpool (2010), the 10th Berlin Biennale (2018), the 14th Sharjah Biennial (2019), and more recently, the Liverpool Biennial (2021) and Prospect.5 in New Orleans (2024).
Cozier is also a co-founder of Alice Yard, a contemporary art space and network based in Port of Spain that has become an important platform for experimental and collaborative work in the region and beyond. In 2013, he received the Prince Claus Award in recognition of his contributions to cultural thought and artistic practice.
His work is held in several major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Stavanger Art Museum in Norway.
– FRI 4 JULY 2025
