DESMOND ALLI

Desmond Alli is a bona fide artivist who has been involved with grassroots artist movements in his native Guyana and within Latin America for more than four decades. His lifelong commitment to social activism has inspired him to sculpt wood and paint under his trademark banner of ¨Art in Resistance¨, a term that captures his views on the role of artists as contributors to social change in democratic and despotic societies.

Desmond is a political science graduate and a self-taught artist. He has exhibited in numerous countries on the continents of North and South America, and Europe. One of his early Art in Resistance sculptures was exhibited at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The Betrayal of the American Revolution sculpture was displayed in Cuba and later acquired by the Cuban government. Walter Rodney Lives was acquired by Tait Foundation in the United States.

Desmond´s life and work inspired the creation of THE GRAPA.

The art showcased at THE GRAPA reflects Desmond´s current preoccupation with conflict, the polarised global order, colonial systems, and inequality in world politics. These unique paintings vividly explore ideas and tensions with sovereign equality, the exercise of power, and national self-determination.