Ivan Forde /
AIPAD
PIER 92/94 | NEW YORK CITY | APRIL 3-7, 2019
For AIPAD 2019, De Soto Gallery presented two series of cyanotype-based works by Ivan Forde. Through photography, printmaking, and performance, Forde reimagines epic poetry as visual narratives, casting himself in every role to explore new archetypes and alternative endings. His process, rooted in auto-ethnography, bridges personal history with universal myth.
In Invocation, Forde reconstructed collective narratives from Buxton, his grandmother's village in Guyana—one of the first Afro-Guyanese settlements post-emancipation. Drawing from oral histories shared by villagers, including his 94-year-old great aunt, Forde staged reenactments that were photographed, layered, and transformed into mythic cyanotypes. His approach blurs the boundaries between memory and fiction, reimagining history as living folklore.
Illumination, inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh, examines themes of resilience and identity through painterly cyanotypes and halftone silkscreens. Using the body as both material and symbol, Forde created dense, layered compositions that connect mythic storytelling with contemporary social narratives.
Ivan Forde (b. 1990, Georgetown, Guyana) has exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney Museum of Art. He is a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and has completed residencies at the Lower East Side Printshop and Pioneer Works. Forde holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA in Classic Literature from SUNY Purchase College.
