Franz Caba

In his work, Dominican painter Franz Caba reflects on the Caribbean—in general—and on the capital city of Santo Domingo’s identity in particular. Caba tackles themes such as the effects of insularity, precarious employment, improvised material culture, the aspirational gaze toward the United States, and the trauma of migration through the lenses of gender, race, and class. The Dominican body usually appears metaphorically represented through the landscape and the local nature of the island. In the painting Quien trae, lleva, a spaceship from a science fiction comic crashes to the ground in a desert landscape. Dozens of banana bunches emerge from the smoking wreckage. It looks as if Martians arrived in the Dominican Republic and only found bananas to loot. The literal and symbolic weight of this cargo could be the cause of the ship’s crash. Caba reflects on how Dominicans undervalue themselves and look to the approval of others for their self-validation.