For three years, Bahamian-American artist Lavar Munroe traveled into the bushlands of Zimbabwe to attend a Shona cultural ceremony called Bira, where he observed the ritual of Kurova Guva. A year after the death of a community member, Shona people would gather around a purposefully unkempt grave – chanting, dancing, and drinking libations – to call back the spirit of the deceased. This act of conjuring has been on Munroe’s mind as he collaborates with the late John Beadle on art offerings for the upcoming Venice Biennale.
“So the intention of the paintings is to call John Beadle back,” said Munroe. “ I’m doing a 10-panel piece. And in that work, I’m pointing to very specific things that are connected to John Beadle, specifically in regard to this thing called Junkanoo.”
Junkanoo is a massive production. The parade takes place on Dec. 26 and Jan. 1, but the preparations take all year to create the elaborate costumes and floats. Junkanoo groups create these pieces in studio shacks. When Beadle was alive, they would chat about art, family and Junkanoo. Munroe is part of Saxons, from which Beadle’s group, One Family, emerged after a rift in 1994.
“A Junkanoo group is like a big fraternity,” explained Munroe. “You cannot just walk into a shack of a Junkanoo group where nobody knows who you are. That is a death wish. And these people are just making costumes.”
Junkanoo has a tradition known as a Junkanoo wake, an element of the festival that tourists don’t always know about.
“After somebody dies, the community comes together. Through procession, dance, and music, send off the spirit, especially if the person was affiliated with a specific group within the society or had some sort of affluent effect on the larger community,” said Munroe
Munroe’s friend, photographer Jackson Petit, will document the wake which One Group is holding for a member who has passed. Munroe will pull from the photographs into the paintings he’s working on at his studio in Baltimore.
As he works, Munroe has noticed some signs that Beadle is working in step with him. His studio is filled with newspapers that he collects to use for his pieces, although, in the last year, he hadn’t done much collecting. Yet, Munroe pointed to a newspaper from The Guardian – on the front page lay the headline “John Beadle dies at 60.”
“When I saw it on the floor, I thought I was freaking out… that’s the same image they used for the Venice announcement,” he said. “ I haven’t collected newspapers probably in at least a year, I want to say, so the Venice newspaper could not be in that batch.”
Munroe is no stranger to collaborating with folks on the other side. He has a very intimate relationship with death, which started with the passing of his mother when he was 9 years old.
“I remember as a kid being told…my mom is always going to be watching over me,” said Munroe. “So as a 9 year old, I’m thinking that my ghost will be watching me all the time. I was scared to go to sleep. Not that I’m scared of my mom, but the notion of a spirit.”
From then on, he would have dreams that announce the transition of his loved ones – first his grandmother, then his father, who passed away in 2016. Munroe discovered his father was sick while presenting at his first Venice Biennale in 2015.
“When I went back home, I couldn’t recognize him, actually. He had cancer. And on his deathbed, he said, ‘If I ever get through this and survive, I promise I’ll travel with you wherever you go for any exhibition.’ But he died,” said Munroe.
Yet, the promise remained. Munroe did his first posthumous collaboration with his father, which debuted in 2016 at the Gutstein Gallery in Savannah, Georgia. It centered around parachutes – a representation of his father’s parachuting business that remained ever-present in his family life. While his father was alive, Munroe and his father teased their first art collaboration focused on parachutes as a way to reconnect with Munroe’s mother.
“I still fulfilled my part of it, which was making an object, which was the urn, just putting his ashes in it,” said Munroe. “ He still fulfilled his part of it, which was his parachute… the last time he braided the parachute ropes, it’s still like that now.”
Their collaboration has been an ongoing practice, appearing “parachutes and the urn, and at other times featuring one or the other,” in Munroe’s exhibitions for almost a decade.
“The notion of him traveling anywhere I go is happening through these exhibitions. I thought it ended in the Bahamas, but it’s going to end in Venice,” he said. “The urn will be in Venice as well, with his ashes and along with his parachute.”
In 2026, Munroe’s return to Venice representing the Bahamas will mark the country’s second showing at the festival since Tavares Strachan presented in 2013.
“I’m ripe now. I wasn’t ready then (in 2015),” said Munroe. “This is my playground. There’s no fear. There’s no nervousness.”
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Oisakhose Aghomo | Correspondent
Oisakhose Aghomo is a Georgia peach by way of Nigeria, but she is currently based in Austin, Texas. She is a writer, researcher, and documentarian. Oisakhose is passionate about equitable access to news and information. She is studying for a Master’s degree in Journalism and Media at Moody College of Communication at University of Texas, Austin. At Latina Republic, she’ll cover stories from the Caribbean, focusing on the arts, community-driven environmental initiatives, and cultural celebrations. In her free time, Oisakhose enjoys experimenting with new recipes and hosting dinners for her friends. She’s also a burgeoning acrobat, practicing aerial silks and lyra. A passionate traveler and a lover of all things media, she’s an avid TV and movie watcher. Her current inspirations include Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, Amaarae, and Jeremy Strong.