Alisa Henriquez: Beneath the palms

EXHIBITION DATES: March 31 – April 25, 2026

RECEPTION: Thursday, april 2, 5 - 8 pm

 The Painting Center is pleased to present Beneath the Palms, a solo exhibition of recent work by Alisa Henriquez in the main gallery and project room. The exhibition opens on Tuesday, March 31, and runs through Saturday, April 25, 2026. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, April 2, from 5 to 8 pm. 

Drawing from her family’s genealogical research and oral histories, Henriquez’s latest work imaginatively re-stages inherited family mythologies and stories set within the lush landscape of Jamaica. While informed by personal narratives, the paintings also pose larger questions about identity and history as unstable formations—constructed, inherited, and continually reconfigured. 

Situated in imagined topographies, filled with fractured flora and invented geographies, Henriquez layers elusive moments that point to her family’s migratory history and generational stories. Particular attention is paid to the role women play, with female figures appearing, not as portraits, but as mutable presences shaped by abstraction, erasure, and historical forces. The abstracted female figure exists as a shifting structure, asserting and dissolving into hybrid spatial fields. In addition to her use of the figure, motifs found in the landscape also play a prominent role. The image of the palm tree fonds, recurs throughout this series, artfully functioning in a myriad of ways, serving not just a geographical locator, but also as an engulfing, nurturing form, and a rhythmic visual beat across the space that often hides as much as it reveals. 

Collectively, Henriquez’s choreographed use of color and pattern, coupled with her use of overlapping contours and ruptured boundaries, mirror the instability of memory and the continual revision of narrative. Through the process of viewing these works, the concept of identity emerges as an ongoing living abstraction—layered, provisional, unresolved and ultimately, a rich landscape unto itself. 

Alisa Henriquez, born in Kingston, Jamaica, received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her work is represented by David Klein Gallery in Detroit and has been exhibited at many venues, nationally and internationally. Henriquez is currently a Professor of Studio Art at Michigan State University. 

For more information on the artist, visit alisahenriquez.com and instagram.com/alisahenriquez/