Che Lovelace

Tommaso Corvi-Mora is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Che Lovelace.

“The title Yankee Gone is drawn from a line in the famous 1956 calypso Jean and Dinah by the legendary Mighty Sparrow. The song reflects on the departure of American troops from their World War II military bases in Trinidad, particularly those just outside of Port of Spain in Chaguaramas, where my studio is now located—and from which many of the landscapes in this exhibition are inspired.

For some time, I’ve been drawn to the physical and historical essence of this area, where my workspace has been situated for the past decade. Once a sprawling U.S. military base, the district was returned to the government of Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1960s. The very space that now houses my studio was once part of the officers’ quarters.

While remnants of wartime structures still dot the peninsula, the area is now primarily dominated by a rich, dense natural environment. This juxtaposition of military history and nature has affected my work, even as my earlier paintings largely focused on isolated elements of the local flora and fauna, weaving them into varied narratives.

For this new body of work, I am trying to explore the enduring physical and psychological traces of the military presence here. Many of the pieces delve somewhat into depictions of the ruins and remnants of physical structures etc.Yet, at the core, these are imaginative renderings—an interplay between the natural landscape and the human imprint upon it. Through ruins, historical traces, and imagined landscapes, these paintings explore the echoes of human presence on the land—its beauty, its scars, and the resilience that transform people, history and nature.”

—Che Lovelace, 2025