Geographic Bodies
The exhibition delves into the visual and material legacies of the colonial and touristic gaze, especially tropes around nature, leisure, the “exotic,” and how they intersect with female bodies — especially those from the Caribbean. Using camouflage, concealment, botanical motifs, print, and garment-like fabric interventions, Minaya reclaims and reframes these tropes. The show also reveals her process, sketches, research, and interim works.
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“Geographic Bodies” is a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Joiri Minaya, held at The 8th Floor gallery in New York, under the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. It opened on Thursday, March 13, 2025 (with an opening reception from 6-8 PM) and runs through June 14. The exhibition presents works made over the past decade, including photography, performance, video, digital collage, installation, and botanical-inspired print works. Minaya draws on her experiences growing up in the Dominican Republic and on her investigations of the colonial/exotic gaze, the politics of bodies, nature, landscape, and identity. The show includes series like Containers, Cloaking, I Can Wear Tropical Print Now, and others, to interrogate how bodies are represented, exoticized, camouflaged, and commodified.
Exhibition Description
Minaya’s Geographic Bodies features several interconnected series: - Containers (2015-2020): women in full-bodied spandex suits printed with tropical flora, set in landscapes that seem natural but are often manipulated or artificial; the suits both camouflage and constrain. - Cloaking (from 2019 onward): covering monuments (e.g. statues of colonial figures) with her own fabric designs, to intervene in public spaces and colonial memory. Minaya uses camouflage and concealment not simply for aesthetics but to critique exoticization, visibility versus invisibility, colonial control over bodies and landscapes, and the tension of living under external projections.
Gallery
