El Cemí de la Cohoba (2026)

El Cemí de la Cohoba depicts the sacred sculpture used by the Taíno in the cohoba ritual — a ceremony of communion with the spirit world through a sacred inhaled substance, guided by the caciques and behiques (shamans) of the Caribbean. Rendered in imitation bronze foil against a smoky ground of teal and ochre, the cemí's wide eyes and open mouth suggest a being mid-invocation, caught at the threshold between the seen and unseen. Curling golden forms rise around it — the breath, vapor, and vision of the ritual made visible. This work completes a series of three paintings honouring Taíno spirituality: an object of earthly power, a figure of ancestral rest, and here, the instrument of communion with the divine. Painted in a naïve, folk register, the series is an act of remembrance — restoring visibility to a belief system nearly erased by conquest.