A chance to own a piece of col­lectible art­work by an ac­claimed T&T painter, and sup­port lit­er­ary de­vel­op­ment at the same time? That’s the dou­ble ben­e­fit of the of­fi­cial poster re­leased by the Bo­cas Lit Fest to com­mem­o­rate its 15th an­nu­al fes­ti­val.

Fea­tur­ing a re­pro­duc­tion of a paint­ing by T&T artist Che Lovelace, the fes­ti­val posters are a lim­it­ed edi­tion, signed and num­bered by the artist, and avail­able for pur­chase at the price of $200 dur­ing the 2025 fes­ti­val.

Sales of this com­mem­o­ra­tive col­lectible will sup­port the year-round work of the Bo­cas Lit Fest with writ­ers and read­ers of all ages.

Each poster mea­sures 18 x 24 inch­es, print­ed by Trin­pad, of­fi­cial print part­ner for the 2025 Bo­cas Lit Fest.

Lovelace gen­er­ous­ly do­nat­ed the use of his 2022 paint­ing Read­er Close to Palms (acrylic and dry pig­ment on board pan­els) to the fes­ti­val.

Born in 1969, Che Lovelace lives and works in his life­long home of Trinidad. Root­ed in the rur­al out­skirts of Port-of-Spain, Lovelace con­sid­ers his home coun­try his ul­ti­mate sub­ject. The flo­ra, fau­na, and fig­ures of is­land life are ever-present in his trop­i­cal vis­tas, paint­ed on wood pan­els split in­to quad­rants.

Re­cent so­lo ex­hi­bi­tions in­clude Che Lovelace: Bathers at Nico­la Vas­sell Gallery, New York (2023); Nightscapes with Palms and Egrets at Var­i­ous Small Fires, Dal­las (2023); and Day Al­ways Comes at Corvi-Mo­ra, Lon­don (2023).

Lovelace’s work is held in the col­lec­tions of the Mu­se­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art Los An­ge­les, The In­sti­tute of Con­tem­po­rary Art Mi­a­mi, X Mu­se­um, and the Aïshti Foun­da­tion, among oth­ers.

Lovelace was re­cent­ly award­ed l’Or­dre des Arts et des Let­tres (the Or­der of Arts and Let­ters) by the French gov­ern­ment. The award, pre­sent­ed in Port-of-Spain on April 15 by French Am­bas­sador Di­di­er Chabert, recog­nis­es em­i­nent artists, writ­ers, and oth­er in­di­vid­u­als who have con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to fur­ther­ing the arts in France and through­out the world.

Apart from the the­mat­ic links be­tween the poster im­age and the fes­ti­val theme, Lovelace’s par­tic­i­pa­tion is al­so sig­nif­i­cant be­cause 2025 brings the 90th birth­day of his fa­ther, icon­ic au­thor Earl Lovelace. A trib­ute to the el­der Lovelace and his stel­lar lit­er­ary ca­reer was the for­mal open­ing event of the Bo­cas Lit Fest, yes­ter­day evening.

Art col­lec­tors and Bo­cas sup­port­ers have an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty: a lim­it­ed num­ber of orig­i­nal 2020 Bo­cas Lit Fest posters—mark­ing the tenth fes­ti­val, fea­tur­ing a draw­ing of the Old Fire Sta­tion by artist Jack­ie Hink­son—are still avail­able, along with a small num­ber of prints from the ear­li­er Fes­ti­val Art se­ries, fea­tur­ing works by artists Chris Ofili (2011), Niko­lai Noel (2012), and Wendy Nanan (2013).

For more in­for­ma­tion on the 2025 fes­ti­val poster, vis­it https://www.bo­caslit­fest.com/fes­ti­val-art/.

Dur­ing the 2025 Bo­cas Lit Fest, posters can be pur­chased at the main fes­ti­val venue, the Na­tion­al Li­brary in down­town Port-of -Spain.