Lucien Downes Spring Show Refreshes the Senses

M.A. Dworkin

St. Croix - To say Spring is in the Air would be a vast understatement if applied to Lucian Downes’ Spring Equinox Art Exhibition that opened recently at CMCArts in Frederiksted. A more appropriate description might be to state that a Revolution in the Arts is in the Air, and it is sweeping through the creative minds of artists and patrons of the arts, clearing out the old conceptions and ringing in the new. 

Hear ye! Hear ye! Harken unto thee, a rumbling is quaking beneath our feet, a new breath of fresh spring air is making its way into the planting season, and the growth of the art world on St. Croix is busting loose with artistic talent the likes it has never seen before.

Lucien Downes. The Crown Prince of USVI Art, is up to his old creative tricks again, by putting together an exhibition that is not only powerful to the sight but emanates throughout the senses, punching alive the right side of the brain, causing a creative seizure of sorts, that captures the current moment in time by presenting Caribbean artists and their art in the sweetest of songs and the most deceptive of lies.

Brenda Cotto’s Bicycle in Bloom, acrylic on canvas, is about as sweet a picture of the coming of Spring as you will find. This over-flowing basket of lovely springtime flowers perched upon the handlebars of an old-time girl’s bicycle takes us back to the simpler moments of island life…Ah, to be in love again, to love life, to love nature, to love the world!

On the other hand, Meg Lyn’s The Price of Paradise, acrylic, mixed media, is about as cynical a look at island living as you will come by. This unflinching snapshot of pastel-colored island houses, scattered palm trees, a sun-blazed sea, clothes hanging on the line, superimposed with tattered hundred dollar bills, receipts, and check stubs plastered along the painting’s perimeter, knocks the living daylights out of any notion that paradise is all paradise - 100% of the time - In God We Trust. 

This ecstatically, dizzying show not only highlights the wonders of Spring, but puts its stamp on the wonders of the female form - Eliana B. Artist’s Duality, acrylic on canvas; Therese Trudeau’s Shared Sacred Space/My Sisters Keeper, acrylic, marker; El’Roy Simmonds’ Mel’s Red Comb #1, acrylic on paper on canvas; Anglina Springer’s Call Me If You…, acrylic on canvas; Antonio Cruz’s Rebirth, black Ink, pencil, pen; Nora Stewart’s Sea Shell Sister - Maya, Electra, Celine - a series of three paintings, acrylic on canvas; Eric Paxton’s poster-size trio: Blue Hair Goddess, Girl Above the World, and Mother of the Universe, oil, acrylic, spray on found metal; Jayliyah Gunnel’s Spring Field, acrylic on canvas…

There can be no mistake, one and all of these wonderful paintings attest to the beauty of women, their power, their glory, their wisdom, their inner strength. 

“I am woman hear me roar!” They scream out to the world. We are the lifeblood that holds it all together. We are the raison d’etre…And don’t you forget it buddy!

Lucien Downes’ Mokolution 2, mixed media, brings the Spring Equinox Show to its climax. This historic moko jumbie figure, lighter-than-air, symbol of the islands, a fantasy borne in reality; sports a graceful, colorful image dancing and floating playfully among the clouds, as it leads us on to the true spirit of the islands, the islands we love, the islands they dream about, the islands we live for. Indeed, it is nothing short than a Mokolution! 

And so, CMCArts once again leads us into another harkening of spring, with its wunderkind team of people who care deeply about their constituents, who light the way to a better life with their devotion to the arts.

Yes, the night was magic! The sun set down gently across the Caribbean Sea as Jennifer Avila of Cultural Delights set down a charming charcuterie board; and Irene Ali and Kevin Williams Jr. serenaded the springtime crowd that so much appreciates great art, great surroundings and the gifts of the good life that time and again St. Croix brings into their world. 

Spring Equinox curated by Lucien Downes runs thru May 23, 2026 at CMCArts, 10 Strand Street, Frederiksted.