NEW YORK, NY.- Throughout history the palm tree has come to symbolize many things—victory, religion, colonization, and exoticism, to name a few. It is universally associated with paradise, be it a geographic or spiritual one. Matisse famously fell in love with them in Vence, featuring them prominently in his last complete series of paintings (1946-1948.) Marcel Broodthaers would go on to include dozens of palm trees in his 1970s installations, evoking the historical links between the rise of Europe’s great cultural institutions and African colonialism.

The palm trees Matisse admired from his rooms at Villa le Rêve—Phoenix canariensis—are actually native to the Canary Islands, having arrived in Europe as a direct result of the centuries-long colonization of Africa. In Western visual culture, as Broodthaers observed, the palm tree has long been a stand-in for the “other”—a souvenir from a distant idyllic land, gradually appropriated by European and North American societies as evidence of colonial enrichment. They evoke the sensual allure of the tropics without laying bare the darker realities on the ground. This idealistic appropriation also went the other way—as the world grew more interconnected and the colonial era gave way to burgeoning third-world nations, images of palm trees became ubiquitous on everything from tourist merchandise to national flags.

Radamés “Juni” Figueroa (b. 1982) has developed a unique insight into the underlying meanings of this pervasive symbol. Growing up in Puerto Rico, which for centuries has been at the crossroads of foreign colonial influences, Figueroa witnessed the oscillation between consumerist exoticism and local splendor, exploring how modern society blurs the boundaries between the two. His practice is informed by observations on the social economy of the tropics, where seemingly conflicting forces of leisure and exploitation are often intertwined.

Central to Figueroa’s aesthetic philosophy is the challenging of the traditional gallery space. His site-specific installations bring together elements of informal architecture, tropical flora, and kitsch tourist traps. They are often spaces that can double as performance stages or bars, complete with functional piña colada fountains designed to evoke the day-to-day sensations of life in the Caribbean.

The paintings included in this exhibition are from the artist’s new Cabo Rojo series, which was inspired by a set of placemats found in his mother’s beach house. Featuring tropical prints and imagery, Figueroa was amused to discover the t-shirt-shaped placemats were actually made in China, exemplifying the ironies that abound when native resources meet foreign economic interests. In addition to the paintings, the exhibition features several of Figueroa’s well-known Tropical Readymades, planter pots fashioned from cut sports balls and accompanied by drawings that function as each sculpture’s “certificate of authenticity.”

Radamés “Juni” Figueroa lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He studied painting at Escuela de Artes Plásticas (School of Fine Arts) in San Juan. Major exhibitions and projects include Naguabo Rainbow, Daguao Enchumbao, Fango Fire Flies at SculptureCenter, the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Triangle Eucalyptus for Meditation at 43 Salon Inter-Nacional de Medellín, Colombia, and Disruption at Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara.