Thursday, October 1, 2026
A closer look at the “America 250” art exhibit on display inside the Lakeview Public Library this month may reveal more than visitors would come to expect at first glance.
Hidden images, carefully arranged objects and layers of American and Caribbean history fill the monthlong exhibition featuring Queens artist David G. Wilson, 72, of the Long Island Black Artists Association, or LIBAA.
The exhibition continues the library’s longstanding partnership with the LIBAA, which has helped transform the library into a rotating community gallery. Each month, a different LIBAA artist is featured in the lobby and adult reference area.
“To have such brightly painted or sculpted pictures of their artwork, it draws the eye in,” Camina Raphael-Lubin, the library’s director, said, “and people are always complimenting the artists.”
For “America 250,” Wilson draws on moments in American history, the legacy of slavery and his native Commonwealth of Dominica to create layered visual narratives. His dozen of paintings blend history, personal experience and cultural influences, exploring connections among America’s past, the African diaspora and Caribbean heritage.
“I inject references to my country to indicate where I was born,” Wilson said. “I came here at the age of 22, and I’ve been in this country for 50 years.”
Born in Roseau, Dominica, in 1953, Wilson immigrated to the United States in 1976 and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from York College while studying Spanish and French. Although he never received formal artistic training, he has spent decades developing his distinctive approach to visual storytelling.
Wilson traces his artistic vision to an unexpected childhood lesson in Dominica. While teaching him and his brother to read, his mother asked them to identify Italy on a map after realizing they had skipped a reading assignment. She told them to picture “Italy kicking Sicily,” a simple description that changed the way he viewed the world.
He soon began seeing other recognizable forms in maps, including his native Dominica, which resembled a penguin, sparking a lifelong fascination with hidden images.
“The style has several influences,” he said. “My mom introduced me to looking at a map and seeing that it looks like another thing.”
That early lesson was reinforced by the culture in which Wilson grew up. He became captivated by the double meanings and wordplay of Caribbean calypso music, particularly the songs of Mighty Sparrow, whose lyrics often carried multiple interpretations.
After immigrating to the United States, his interest in art deepened through museum visits, where he viewed original works by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt and Vermeer that he had previously known only from textbooks.
Da Vinci’s suggestion that artists study stains on walls and discover images within them became another influence. Combined with Salvador Dalí’s double imagery, the idea helped shape Wilson’s approach.
Central to his work is a style he calls “anthropomorphic perception,” which uses hidden imagery and visual transformation to challenge first impressions. Carefully arranged everyday objects form secondary images when viewed from different perspectives.
The technique turns each painting into a visual exploration, with familiar objects taking on new forms and meanings. Together, the works make “America 250” both a recognition of the nation’s milestone anniversary and an opportunity to reflect on the histories and experiences that have contributed to the American story.
“I use the two presidents (George Washington and Abraham Lincoln) to represent two of the major presidents who have brought this country to what it is, and I also depict another aspect of history, slavery,” Wilson said about his works on display. “Because we cannot have one without the other. In spite of the fact that some people would like to erase slavery, it is a fact.”
Wilson’s interest in history, particularly the experiences of the African diaspora, remains central to his work. Since 1980, he has created hundreds of paintings and expanded into sculpture, continuing his exploration of identity, memory, perception and illusion.
Founded in 1968, LIBAA has spent nearly six decades promoting the work of Black visual artists on Long Island and beyond. James Counts, Ernest Snell, Raymond Miles and Charles Winslow established the organization to create exhibition opportunities while encouraging collaboration, mentorship and cultural expression.
Through “America 250,” the Lakeview Public Library is offering residents more than an art exhibition. Throughout July, visitors can explore Wilson’s work, search for hidden images and experience an exhibition that shows how a second look can reveal an entirely different story.
For more information on the Long Island Black Artists Association, visit LIBlackArtists.com.
