Queen Beatrix Worldwide Airport has a repute for being nightmarish in a means that, I’m glad to say, didn’t align with my expertise of touring to and from Aruba. Then once more, I visited effectively outdoors the height mid-December to mid-April season—so who is aware of what horrors await these chasing Carnival and sub-90 temperatures. However I prefer it sizzling, so Aruba’s climate works for me all twelve months of the yr. And anyway, I’m right here for the artwork truthful.
For a lot of, the phrase “artwork truthful” conjures one thing particular: a maze of white-walled cubicles the place sellers and consumers parley in hushed tones over five- and six-figure offers. The environment? Upscale. The artwork? Unique. Aruba Artwork Honest, against this, is deliberately inclusive. Past the 4 curated areas, cubicles line the streets of San Nicolas—any artist who desires to take part can take part.
However right here’s the factor about artwork in Aruba extra broadly: if you wish to expertise it outdoors the truthful, you’ll need to put in additional than a bit of effort. This isn’t precisely an arts vacation spot… but. If Aruba Artwork Honest founder Tito Bolivar has something to say about it, it will likely be—and possibly inside a number of brief years. For now, I’ll be fully trustworthy and say that researching artwork in Aruba for this story was irritating. The island’s personal web site suggests visiting Unoca, “the island’s nationwide gallery,” which undoubtedly did exist at one level however doesn’t appear to anymore. A number of gallery lists I discover are literally lists of tattoo parlors. The island’s industrial galleries are mysteriously laborious to search out if you seek for ‘Aruba artwork galleries,’ regardless that they’re a significant a part of the artwork scene. And as is usually the case in smaller locations, artist-run and retail galleries open and shut with a frequency that makes placing collectively an arts-focused itinerary upfront a problem.
That mentioned, artwork in Aruba isn’t confined to galleries. It’s within the resort rooms. It’s on the partitions of companies. It’s within the caves. It looms over the roundabouts. It’s even on the homes—a part of a practice stemming from the Nineteenth-century Indigenous artisan Simon Donata and later refined by Janchi Christiaans and Goy Semeleer, who’re credited with popularizing the Cas Floria (adorned homes) fashion. I’m right here to see all of the artwork I can discover in Aruba and to see all of it alone, although don’t take that to imply I’ll be lonely. I used to be touring solo lengthy earlier than we may boring discomfort with a swipe of the display, and I’m snug in new geographies with solely my very own ideas for firm. One factor I’m right here to search out out is what it’s wish to journey alone in a vacation spot that’s marketed to {couples} as a romantic escape.
Day 0
There’s a bunch of artwork within the arrivals corridor however no placards. I determine it’ll be straightforward to search out extra data now that I’m right here, and possibly I’m not attempting laborious sufficient, however the perfect I can dig up is that these works are by Aruban artists. One piece is unquestionably Elisa Lejuez Peters’ We Kiss the Pleasure as It Flies. And there’s a sculpture backyard with work by Ciro Abath, Miriam de L’Isle, Ryan Oduber, Omaira Silva, Osaira Muyale, Gilbert Senchi and Stanley Kuiperi. However search outcomes for Aruba airport artwork are dominated by the 2023 unveiling of a statue (additionally by Senchi) commemorating the island’s first seaplane touchdown in 1923. I drive previous it after securing my rental, and it hits me as I’m going round yet one more roundabout that that is solely the second time I’ve pushed in another country. But it surely doesn’t really feel all that overseas, since I dwell in Massachusetts, arguably the U.S. capital of roundabouts.
I’m headed to The West Deck for my first style of Aruban delicacies, which I’ll later study is a mashup of Indigenous, African, Dutch, South American and Asian influences with a heavy emphasis on seafood for apparent causes. I park in a patch of shade I drive over the sidewalk to succeed in—from what I can inform, parking in some elements of Aruba generally is a free-for-all. “Desk for one,” I inform the hostess. (To the uninitiated, I say strive solo eating at the very least as soon as in your life. It’s pleasant if you understand nobody cares that you simply’re consuming alone. At most, you’ll get some pleasant, good-natured ribbing from waitstaff, which is what occurs right here, but it surely’s the type of teasing that makes you are feeling not simply welcome however at residence.) The West Deck sits over Governor’s Bay Seashore, a quiet stretch of white sand with extra pelicans and terns than individuals. The sky is a painterly blue with picture-perfect clouds, and the airport’s runway is shut sufficient for aircraft recognizing however far sufficient away that each one I hear is the light lapping of the waves..
I order passionfruit juice and tamarind juice, Trocadero garlic shrimp, salad and banana (which right here means plantains), and I munch whereas fascinated about what to do subsequent. There are not any artwork museums in Aruba, so I’m trying to find galleries and open studios. For advantageous arts, there are Tito Bolivar’s two industrial galleries in San Nicolas—ArtisA Gallery and Space21.artwork—each of which I’m scheduled to go to later. Artist Elisa Lejuez Peters has a gallery in Noord, open by appointment, however I’ll be assembly her on the truthful. Most of what I discover are the aforementioned retail galleries geared towards vacationers—probably not my factor. Apparently, there are additionally a number of artwork cafés, together with Aruflamingo in San Nicolas and Artitudes Artwork Cafe in Oranjestad. I wasn’t kidding after I mentioned artwork is all over the place.
There’s even artwork on the donkey sanctuary, which is the place I head subsequent, working below the idea that my room at Bucuti & Tara Seashore Resort couldn’t presumably be prepared (it was). Donkey by Sandy Bruynzeel sits atop a concrete plinth within the enclosure the place rescue donkeys and guests are free to wander. It’s sizzling and dusty, and I’ve been up since 4 a.m. at this level, however I’m in heaven as a result of I’m hugging donkeys. Absolute a great deal of lovable donkeys. No matter you might be in Aruba for, make time to go to the donkeys—you’ll not remorse it. Sadly, I do have to clean up earlier than my aloe scrub-making class at six, however I hug and pet as many donkeys as I can earlier than climbing again within the automobile.
Test-in at Bucuti & Tara ruins me for all different check-ins. I’m midway out of the rental with my suitcase when a porter seems with a cart. I say I’m checking in, he says my identify into his earpiece and my baggage vanishes. I flip round, and there’s a concierge with an icy chilly scented washcloth, which I wrap round my neck, and as soon as we’re inside, she arms me a glass of champagne. Throughout check-in, she takes my photograph, and through my keep, I’m addressed by identify a number of instances with out ever needing to provide it. My bag is ready in my room, together with a Bucuti & Tara
Throughout the property, as you may anticipate, I’m surrounded by {couples}. {Couples} within the pool. {Couples} strolling by as I study in regards to the historical past of aloe in Aruba and make a customized sugar scrub with an aloe grasp from Royal Aruba Aloe. {Couples} figuring out collectively within the health club. (Word: I’m a resort health club connoisseur, and I can say indubitably that Bucuti & Tara has the perfect and most well-appointed health club of any resort I’ve ever visited.) {Couples} eating at Parts, the place I eat a superb dinner of corvina and drink a number of totally different mocktails whereas watching the solar set over the Caribbean. However removed from feeling awkward, it means I’m in no hazard of a buddy or household group attempting to undertake what they suppose is a tragic solo traveler. Have in mind I’ve two kids and a husband and a canine, a cat, a rabbit and 4 chickens. Right here in Aruba, I’m free: doing precisely what I wish to do after I wish to do it—a luxurious all its personal.
Day 1
I plan to eat breakfast at Bucuti & Tara or possibly Linda’s Dutch Pancake Home in Noord, however I get up earlier than dawn, drink an excessive amount of espresso and lose any urge for food I may need had. As an alternative, I hit the seashore for a great, lengthy swim within the near-body-temperature
I do, nonetheless, finally have locations to be—particularly, Studio Murano Artwork, the place I’m scheduled to take a glass-blowing class (there are additionally free glass-blowing demonstrations on daily basis). Co-founder Giuliano Pinzan, who opened the studio close to Ayo village in 2019, comes from an Italian household with roots in glass craftsmanship. I’m a bit of apprehensive about working with molten glass contemporary out of a thousand-degree furnace, but it surely seems that blowing glass is a workforce sport. I determine to make a thick-walled tumbler and select my colours, after which I begin working the black and white chunks right into a blob of red-hot glass with assist from Joshua earlier than Giuliano steps in, and I’m rolling and blowing, rolling and blowing, identical to in movies. It’s very cool to see my blob change into a bubble and that bubble change into a consuming glass. They inform me I’m catching on shortly, and I ponder if they are saying that to all of the vacationers, however my tumbler does end up stunning, so who’s to say?
By now, I’m ravenous, so after I see a meals stand known as La Neryi Snack, with a mascot that appears like an empanada, I flip a wild U-turn. That is the type of factor I dwell for after I journey. What am I about to eat? I don’t know, however I’m excited to search out out. It’s pastechi, and I purchase three: one cheese, one meat, one chop suey. Scrumptious.
With a few hours to kill earlier than my truthful walkthrough, I head to Etnia Nativa. Open by appointment, which I pre-booked, this artsy attraction payments itself as “a residing embodiment of Aruba’s blended tradition.” (The island is smaller than Chicago however homes an astonishingly numerous inhabitants, with greater than 140 nationalities represented.) It’s truly the house of artist August Anthony Croes and his spouse, Silvia, and with artworks on each wall and in each nook, Etnia Nativa may be very a lot a testomony to Croes’ ability together with his arms: the home was constructed virtually totally from salvaged supplies—stones, wooden, nails and screws he collected from building web site cleanups, with solely the home windows, doorways, taps and electrical fixtures purchased new.
The tour itself is brief, nearly an hour, and our chat barely scratches the floor of Croes’ personal work, which encompasses the whole lot from the pottery and work mounted on the partitions to the handcrafted frames that encompass them. However when you’re in search of Aruban artwork, you’ll definitely discover it right here. “All of the work I do has native Aruban inspiration,” he tells me. “For me, the story comes earlier than the artwork. Then I attempt to crystallize the story into one thing materials. Every thing has a narrative—the clay I beat for pots, the whole lot.” It additionally has native Aruban provenance; Croes prides himself on being one thing of a scavenger, whether or not he’s portray on salvaged upholstery or shaping clay from the island itself into pots modeled after archaeological finds. And alongside Croes’ paintings, there are artifacts from Aruba’s archaic and Caquetío populations: chipped hand axes utilized by early hunters-gatherers to open turtle shells and extra polished instruments that, in response to Croes, mirror the extra settled lifetime of the Caquetío—the later indigenous individuals of Aruba—who practiced agriculture and ceramics fairly than fixed looking.
Croes is captivated with many issues past artwork: family tree, archeology, politics, historical past—all of which we talk about as we stroll via his little residing museum. “Tradition is like strings—as quickly because the strings break, it’s over,” he warns. “For Aruba, when the string breaks, it turns into simply industrial land or a stationary cruise ship. Actual tradition doesn’t matter anymore—solely price and worth.”
I mull that over as I head again to Bucuti & Tara to clean up earlier than driving almost the size of the island to San Nicolas and the artwork truthful for a Collector Preview Tour with curator Renwick Heronimo. When the truthful launched in 2016, he explains, Bolivar initially hoped to draw worldwide galleries by mimicking the standard truthful mannequin. “With the primary version, he realized this was going to be rather more of a community-based endeavor. It’s a must to construct up your neighborhood, educate them and provides them a platform for improvement to occur.” Heronimo sees the truthful turning into extra worldwide within the subsequent few years, “however for now, it’s very pluralistic—democratic within the sense that it permits many voices, totally different views on artwork, and methods of having fun with artwork to be celebrated. That’s what makes this challenge particular.”
Heronimo tells us that San Nicolas was as soon as residence to the world’s largest oil refinery—a real firm city that prospered till Exxon dismantled the ability in 1985, leaving the neighborhood economically adrift. Immediately, there’s nonetheless discuss of reopening the refinery, on condition that neighboring Venezuela holds the most important oil reserves within the Western Hemisphere. However tourism already accounts for a significant portion of Aruba’s GDP, and the imaginative and prescient now could be to remodel San Nicolas into the island’s cultural capital. Aruba Artwork Honest—the fruits of Aruba Artwork Week—is only one a part of that plan.
“Simply think about this city earlier than—post-industrial decline, everybody leaving for Saudi Arabia or Curaçao for oil jobs,” Heronimo says. “Buildings had been deserted. I began working with the museums, and Tito began the artwork truthful and the mural challenge. The minute the murals appeared, issues began altering.” Cafés, cinemas, outlets and eating places started to reopen. “Tito’s philosophy is democratic, that means not solely the highest artists get to take part. He believes everybody who desires to be an artist ought to have the ability to. You may exhibit outdoors, get suggestions and develop your course of. After which we method essentially the most distinguished and promising artists and current them within the curated exhibits indoors.”
The curated sections of the truthful span 4 gallery areas, together with an unused constructing on the fringe of city that homes extra conceptual and performance-based work. These embody a relational aesthetic activation with Velvet Zoé Ramos with Diamonta Kock (which I miss) and a strong immersive efficiency by Natusha Croes, together with a presentation by sisterly duo KIP Republic, which you may know from their 2025 manufacturing KINGS… COME HOME at New York’s Apollo Theater. A number of the most putting work within the curated galleries is by painter and sculptor Belinda de Veer, ceramicist Helen Hoes, glass artist and beginner archeological researcher Bernadette van der Klooster and painter Kim Violenes, although with 100 artists exhibiting on the truthful, it’s laborious to maintain observe. There’s simply lots of nice stuff right here. I noticed some acquainted names within the galleries—Sandy Bruynzeel, Elisa Lejuez Peters—however I finally purchase two work by Mauricio Ruiz, who’s exhibiting in a sales space outdoors. Surprisingly, some artists whose work has been staged within the curated areas go for out of doors cubicles in subsequent years, together with one who tells me that “being outdoors is sweet, as a result of you could have extra contact with individuals. They cease, they discuss, they wish to know one thing about your artwork.”
After the walkthrough, I ask Heronimo why Aruba doesn’t have an artwork museum. “In case you have a look at the standard of the artwork being created right here—the dynamism amongst artists annually—it’s inevitable that individuals will ask: how is it potential we don’t have an artwork museum?” he solutions. And there are sufficient native collections, each modern and historic, to help one. (I later study that in 2018, European collector Jan Mol provided to reward his non-public assortment to Aruba because the seed for a nationwide museum of latest artwork, but it surely’s unclear the place the challenge landed.) We chat a bit of extra about artwork scenes all over the world, after which I ponder what opening Aruba as much as extra cultural tourism may imply for the island. “They’re already diversifying tourism—positioning Aruba as a household vacation spot or a getaway for solo vacationers,” Heronimo says. “But it surely must be managed. If not, locals will probably be shut out. Development must be managed. It’s going to be stunning for many individuals right here. However within the meantime, we construct museums, we create artwork. That’s the remedy. That’s the long run.”
The truthful formally opens at 7 p.m. and runs late, although I by no means make it to the closing bell. If industrial gala’s are one type of overwhelming, hybrid gala’s are one other. Aruba Artwork Honest is a component exhibition, half arts pageant and at the very least two elements block occasion, with a number of efficiency levels and avenue distributors. There’s an entire row of individuals promoting handmade jewellery and a particular set up of artworks made by girls in Aruba’s jail system. I attempt to see the whole lot and provides all of it equal weight—I wish to perceive the place Aruba’s artwork scene is and the place it’s headed—however by 9:30 p.m., I hit a wall. The occasion continues with out me.
Day 2
I get up early. Once more. After a swim, I head to the breakfast buffet at Bucuti & Tara, the place I study that the humorous black birds I see all over the place on the property love scrambled eggs. Ingesting my banana juice on the Parts deck, I watch them dive-bomb a girl who skipped the really helpful plate cowl, whereas two extra birds eye my plate from a protected distance. Breakfast is pleasant, however I don’t overdo it as a result of I’m scheduled to spend a number of hours within the firm of an Isla Aruba information, bouncing alongside filth paths in Arikok Nationwide Park, the huge protected house that contains roughly 20 % of the island and virtually your entire japanese coast. You don’t strictly want a information to go to the reserve, which has ruins, lava fields, limestone crags, caves with work by the island’s native Arawak individuals and cacti galore, however driving to conchi, the well-known pure pool, will be difficult, and the climbing is sizzling.
Our first cease is Quadirikiri Cave, which has two giant dome-shaped chambers lit by pure skylights, Amerindian petroglyphs and a inhabitants of southern long-nosed bats. However Fontein Cave is what I’m actually right here to see. Behind the 200-year-old graffiti scratched into the ceiling by European guests are Arawak drawings which are at the very least a thousand years previous. “We don’t know their meanings, however we all know they depict vegetation, people, animals and generally combos—like visionary symbols,” my information tells me. “Shamans had been mentioned to return in non secular type, not human type, to make the drawings.”
It’s awe-inspiring to face the place the island’s historic artists stood, and I want I may spend extra time right here. As I’m basking within the artwork, my information factors out a trio of blue land crabs nestled within the crags after which casually mentions their neighbor, the large yellow-leg centipede. I spot it on the base of a rock formation; it’s actually a foot lengthy, and identical to that, I’m prepared to maneuver on.
Subsequent up, a Garra rufa fish pedicure on the island’s solely pure freshwater pond, the place now we have a pleasant encounter with a random herd of goats, after which it’s off to the pure pool. Conchi is normally serene, however in the present day it’s roiling. Waves crash over the rocks; currents pull robust from the south. I splash in anyway, swimming towards the push of the waves to climb to the calmer “sizzling tub” on the alternative aspect, the place I snorkel, recognizing spiny urchins and anemones clinging to the rocks. Juvenile angelfish dart round beneath; crabs navigate the rocks above. The windy-day surf won’t be excellent, however I’ve the pure pool to myself for a great quarter of an hour.
On the drive again, I sit up entrance and chat with my information about elevating youngsters, journey and what it’s wish to develop up quadrilingual—as Arubans do. I inform him I’m jealous. Most People barely handle one different language, and I can’t assist however surprise what we’ve misplaced due to that.
Subsequent on my itinerary is the well-known Zeerovers—half seafood shack, half ceremony of passage. Getting there’s straightforward. Parking is one other story: it’s one other sandy lot with no marked areas and an anything-goes vibe. After I arrive, the road is almost out the door, and it solely grows longer as I wait. By the point I attain the window the place you order in the present day’s catch by the pound, I’m sizzling, hangry and so I over-order by lots. However when my tray lastly arrives and I take that first chunk, I’m glad I waited. Seafood lovers: courageous the road. Solo vacationers: deliver a e book.
Later that afternoon, I head again to the truthful for Tito Bolivar’s mural tour. I’ve learn that the murals of San Nicolas are a present from the artists who take part within the truthful, however whether or not or not that’s technically true, there’s clearly a powerful hyperlink between annually’s truthful and new murals going up. Bolivar—whose outlook on life may greatest be described as boundlessly optimistic—is the explanation Aruba has industrial galleries in any respect and why Forbes named San Nicolas the street-art capital of the Caribbean. So I’m shocked to study that he wasn’t at all times an artwork man. He fell in love with avenue artwork, and artwork extra broadly, in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2015—and produced the primary version of Aruba Artwork Honest only a yr later after connecting with native artists, worldwide artists, artwork influencers and tradition activists.
“I needed to do one thing significant, so we began a mural and gallery motion in San Nicolas,” he says as we stroll from one wall to the subsequent, making it sound straightforward. “And since that is the island’s coronary heart, we introduced it again to life. We don’t simply do the truthful—we run social initiatives, too.” He’s facilitated artwork packages in Aruba’s jail and began packages in colleges centered on net design, videography, music manufacturing, dance and vogue. He hosts solo exhibits in his galleries; in December, he’ll be bringing work by artists from his roster to Crimson Dot Miami. (You may take a look at the murals simply by strolling round, however the tour is totally price taking when you’re staying in Oranjestad or additional north—not only for the depth of Bolivar’s information however for his energetic supply.)
I spend a number of extra hours on the truthful, wandering from sales space to sales space, chatting with artists, who hail from Aruba and the Netherlands and the U.S. and Colombia and many different locations. Contained in the galleries are throngs of individuals. Outdoors are throngs of partiers. An artist/illustrator whose identify and Instagram deal with I’ve since misplaced turns me right into a cartoon (on the off likelihood you’re studying this, e mail me!). I sit at a protracted desk and paint a lopsided luchador on a bottle with painter and singer Angela Croes, who serenades us as we wrestle to search out the spirits lurking in our recycled glass canvases. One throughline of my time right here is how inclusive the whole lot—artwork and in any other case—feels. I’m touring alone, however all over the place I’m going, there’s good, earnest dialog and a shared appreciation for the whole lot Aruba has to supply.
On the drive again to Bucuti & Tara on my last night, I take a fallacious flip and discover myself someplace surprising—an upscale procuring strip. There’s a Louis Vuitton retailer. Then Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Prada. I park and wander. Aruba is extraordinarily protected, and I’m curious to see a bit of extra of it in my last hours right here. There are the pastel-hued Dutch colonial buildings that appear like fancy tea desserts that I’ve solely seen in photographs. Streetcar tracks that, I study later, are for the double-decker trolleys that shuttle cruise passengers via the capital. There are Osaira Muyale’s well-known blue horses—public sculptures commemorating the island’s horse commerce. And naturally, bustling eating places, casinos and nightclubs. That is Oranjestad, Aruba’s capital metropolis and the place the cruising class makes landfall. It’s charming, positive, however give me gritty San Nicolas and a chop suey pastechi over a visit to Cartier any day.
Flash ahead to the subsequent morning, and it’s Monday. My bizcation is formally over, and I get up—but once more—stupidly early to work after which sip espresso on my balcony for for much longer than I ought to, watching the solar come up over the palms and listening to these egg-stealing birds. I do know I want to take a look at, head to the airport and get a number of extra tales filed. However I don’t wish to go away. All throughout my journey, individuals saved speaking about Aruba’s repeat guests. “You’ll be again,” they’d say, and I didn’t perceive—till now. I make my means right down to the seashore one last time to sit down and stare on the turquoise waves. There’s that light breeze once more. And I discover I can’t deliver myself to face up and switch my again on the seashore simply but.
I nonetheless say I’m not a sit-on-the-beach particular person. Until, apparently, I’m in Aruba.
