DECOLONIZE

CRYING IS ALLOWED

The artists of the international art collective Art Allies show a large hybrid installation of freely moving objects. Like a galaxy of shifting bodies, the works will collide, rub, and dance. A unique experiment is conducted to uncover (dys)functional entanglements: family constellations with the artworks, guided by a professional therapist: Crying is allowed.
I traveled from my home in Harlem to Haarlem, and I brought artwork by the stars in my New York constellation from Harlem - and beyond - with me.

ELEKTRA KB

COLD, because that is how people’s inaction feels…giving a Cold shoulder. Inspired by immigrants in harsh ICE detention in the US. Ukrain-born Colombian artist Elektra KB lives and works in Brooklyn and Berlin. The Latin American futurist, born from a journey shaped by disability, their work centers on “The Cathara Autonomous Territory,” exploring the transformative power of play. KB’s art addresses subjects such as illness, disability, migration, gender violence, and power abuse from a global south decolonial perspective.
Website www.elektrakb.com
Instagram @elektrakb

Embroidery, facbric collage, mounted on canvas board, 2025, € 2.000

THOMAS E. HEATH

Thomas Heath (Harlem) uses his paintbrush to resist black lives being forgotten, rewritten, or marginalized. He paints ancestors who stayed behind, those lost in the passage, those who survived and possible futures.
Website www.thomaseheath.com
Instagram @thomas_e_heath

Cut-out cardboard, acrylic, 2019, €xxx each

ÉLAN CADIZ

Interdisciplinary, multi ethnic, multi racial, North American, native New Yorker Élan Cadiz (Harlem) is a visual artist. Scaffold: Equity of Treatment is about the importance of self-reflection and preservation and equitable treatment in our homes, communities, and world. The use of the scaffolding is to symbolize the individual care and support we all need.

Self Portrait, 2021
Adé Adisa, 2021, BE YOU lifestyle movement
Website www.elancadiz.com
Instagram @elancadiz @scaffoldproject

Pen, pencil, acrylic and flash paint on Shizen Pastel Paper; handmade in India from 100% recycled materials.

HELINA METAFERIA

Helina Metaferia (Harlem) is an interdisciplinary artist working across collage, sculpture, video, performance, and social engagement.
By Way of Revolution is an art project that creates space for powerful dialogue and communion amongst BIPOC womxn/femme identifying people, who have historically served as overlooked yet vital assets within care politics and activist labor.

Website www.helinametaferia.com
Instagram @helina.metaferia

Headdress 4, collaged paper, 2019, print 6.5x5.5in, 16x14cm, €10

DEMIAN DINÉYAZHI

Demian DinéYazhi'(Diné) is a transdisciplinary artist and poet who uses social interventions to interrupt colonial power structures. DinéYazhi’ is the founder of Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment (R.I.S.E.), an activist initiative for education and preservation of Indigenous art and culture. They was born in Gallup, New Mexico, into the Naasht'ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water's Edge) and Tódích'íí'nii (Bitter Water) clans of the Diné (Navajo), and is currently based in Portland, Oregon.

Etsy www.demiandineyazhi.com
Instagram @heterogeneoushomosexual @riseindigenous

Indigenous Land, high-pigmented print 7x4.5in, 18x12cm, €25

DECOLONIZE!

The colony of New Haarlem was founded by Peter Stuyvesant in 1658. Time to give back the land to the Lenape, who lived in Manahahtáanung for 10,000 years before the Dutch colonized it 400 years ago. I traveled from my home in Harlem to Haarlem, the Netherlands to reconquer and tell stories about the Dutch in New Amsterdam that we don’t learn in school.

6950 B.C. LENAPE

Lenapehoking. New York Harbor was once home to 220,000 acres of oyster reefs. The Lenape ate oysters, leaving the shells on the banks in piles, shell middens. The oldest, in Dobbs Ferry, is 9,000 yeras old. The Dutch in New Amsterdam copied the oystering tradition of the Lenape, and called Ellis Island ‘Oyster Island’ and Liberty Island ‘Great Oyster Island.’ Today, the Billion Oyster Project on Governors Island aims to bring back the oysters.
Oyster shells, air pearls, resin, 3-4”/7,5-10cm, 2025, tank €250, bottle €200, Bellarmine jug €275, set €700

1668-1858

THE HARLEM AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND at 126th Street and Second Avenue is at MTA’s decommissioned bus depot. It was a segregated cemetery created in 1668 for the burial of enslaved and freed Africans in the Dutch colony of ‘Nieuw Haarlem’. The burial ground was maintained until 1858 by the Elmendorf Reformed Church (171 East 121st St), and then forgotten.
Stones, brick, glass grit, screws, resin, 3.5-4.5”/7-11cm, 2025, tank €275, spray bottles €200 each, small €175, set €850

1588-1672 FAKE GOLD

The 17th century was the so-called Dutch ‘Golden Age.’ The Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Dutch West India Company (WIC) became global powers through advanced shipbuilding techniques and the ruthless use of violence. The Dutch elite grew filthy rich from colonialism, looting, oppression, exploitation, rape, and murder across the world. Even today, they still call this ‘trade.’
Fake gold leaf cast in resin, label, 3-4.5”/7-11cm, 2025, spray bottle €200, small €150, jug €275, set €900

Zap A Racist. Zap A Settler. Colonialism and oppression still exist. Even the most ‘developed’ countries with the ‘highest morals’ are guilty of settler colonialism, racism, apartheid, authoritarianism, LGBTQIA2S+ hate, misogyny, and genocide.
Paperclay dead racists cast in resin, 4.5x3.5”/11x9cm, 2025, Zap A Racist €300, Zap A Settler €300, Dead racist €50, Set & purse €700

VANISH 1492, Go Away Columbus Spray, Powerful Decolonization & Land Back Formula. Resin, label, 9x3.5x1.5”/23x9x4cm, €1650

LAND BACK

Simple Eco 2-Step Process, Step 1: Return stolen land, Step 2: Return stolen land. Inspired by Land Back for Dummies by @Chippewar - Turtle Island - Stolen in the USA - Íiyach Ktapihna! - We Are Still Here! Print on fabric, trim, sequins, beads, filling, 13x7”/33x18cm, 2025, €350 each

ART ALLIES SHOP

Help artists, buy art! During the pop-up exhibition Crying Is Allowed / Er Mag Gehuild Worden, the 14 Art Allies artists show and sell their art in Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem, Netherlands.

WHITE HORSE The first direct shipment of enslaved Africans arrived in New Amsterdam in 1655. The slave ship White Horse, ‘Witte Paert’, carried 300 captured Africans. Many didn’t survive the long voyage. In the 1660s, 30% of the population of New Amsterdam were enslaved Africans. Two-colored resin, label, €200

BELLARMINE JUG Mini replica of an original 1620-1630 Baardmankruik, with the seal of Amsterdam, with the three Andreas Crosses. €150

NEW AMSTERDAM Inspired by the vodka brand New Amsterdam. Black tulip leaves in resin, label € 200

PAGGANK GONE! Paggank, Noten Eylandt (Governors Island) was ‘purchased’ by Wouter van Twiller, fifth Director of New Netherland, aka Walter the Doubter, aka the beer barrel on skids, on June 16, 1637. He paid two axe heads, a string of beads, and a handful of nails. Colonial Steal! Hickory cast in resin. label, €200

CAPITALISM From the 17th century Dutch colonialism and the founding father, George Washington, who owned hundreds of enslaved people to the buck of today. Replica of Bellarmine jug, one-dollar bill, resin, €275

EQUAL PAY SPRAY All Purpose Equalizer, Resin, label, €150

WORLD PEACE Universe Globally No. 1, One Coat Application. Resin, label, €250

THANK YOU, for ruining the planet. Eco-friendly reusable tote bag that was shredded by the mower machine on Governors Island. A bitter-sweet metaphor for the unstoppable climate change. If We Could Change History… Scraps, resin, Tank €250, Bottle €200, Bellarmine Jug €275