Visual art

FORECAST FORM: ART IN THE CARIBBEAN DIASPORA, 1990S–TODAY Amid the tumult of the 1990s — the dissolution of the Eastern bloc, transnational trade agreements, the internet — Caribbean society found itself in rapid transformation, like most everywhere on the planet. Folded into the upheaval was increased attention in the cultural world to fluid notions of identity, whether national, racial, or otherwise, and artists from the Carribbean, this exhibition suggests, were in the spotlight as never before. Calling itself the “first major group exhibition in the United States to envision a new approach to contemporary art in the Caribbean diaspora,” “Forecast Form” explores the mutability and uncertainty seeded in a fertile decade, still growing today. Through Feb 25. Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100, icaboston.org

MICKALENE THOMAS/PORTRAIT OF AN UNLIKELY SPACE Thomas, much-celebrated for her sparkly enamel paintings embedded with rhinestones, has always had the history of Black representation close at mind, and the scenes she depicts — aggressively sexualized, often menacing — speak to an intent of reclaiming the Black female figure from the exploitations of art history. In this show, Thomas assumes the role of curator as well as artist, assembling an array of smallscale portraits of Black Americans, from early-19th-century photography to contemporary works by such artists as Curtis Talwst Santiago and Sula Bermúdez-Silverman. Through Jan. 7. Yale University Art Museum, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. 203-432-0601, artgallery.yale.edu

FAITH RINGGOLD: FREEDOM TO SAY WHAT I PLEASE Sixty years into a career that came of age in the tumult of the civil rights movement, Faith Ringgold, 93, might be more visible now than ever before. Pablo Picasso, her most profound influence and nemesis, is the touchstone here; her 1967 piece “American People Series #20: Die,” which was installed prominently alongside several Picassos for the 2019 reinstallation opening of the Museum of Modern Art, drew a parallel between the fascist aggression depicted in Picasso’s “Guernica” and the everyday violence Ringgold saw amid the struggle for civil rights. This show draws on Picasso again, using Ringgold’s “Picasso’s Studio,” 1991, as a fulcrum, pivoting into a tight survey of works in which the artist’s frank critique of American life, then and now, is as sharp as ever. Oct. 7-March 17. Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury St., Worcester. 508-799-4406, www.worcesterart.org