Images(2)

Isla (Tierra Prometida)

Artist Yoan Capote Cuban, born 1977

Date2016

MediumOil, nails, and fishhooks on linen, mounted on panel

Dimensions73 3/16 x 115 3/8 x 5 1/8 in. (185.9 x 293.1 x 13 cm)

ClassificationsMixed Media

Credit LineGift of Nancy and Ron McFarlane

Object number2017.2

On View

On view

Label TextTranslated Island (Promised Land), this painting is part of an ongoing series of seascapes by Capote that re-create the tactile experience of standing in front of a metal fence. As the artist describes, for many island-dwelling people “the seascape imposes a political and ideological limit that has been dividing families, ideas, and feelings for generations.” Historically across the African Diaspora, the sea represented the traumatic history of the trans atlantic slave trade that isolated people from their African heritage.
This complex relationship between place and identity is essential to understanding the physical and emotional boundaries that can persist across diasporic experiences.
[M. Brooks, 2025]
ProvenanceCreated Havana, Cuba, 2016; collection of the artist; [Jack Shainman Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 2017. Published ReferencesNorth Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection," (Raleigh, NC; North Carolina Museum of Art, 2024), illus. (color) 74-75.Exhibition HistoryJack Shainman Gallery, New York, “Yoan Capote: Palangre,” February 2–March 11, 2017.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Becoming the NCMA: 10 Decades of Collecting, 1924-2022," June 11-August 21, 2022.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–December 11, 2023.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," March 24, 2025-present. Object Rights Statement

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