Hostos center for arts and culture & bronx council on the arts present the ny latin american art triennial :
Progressive Transition
October 2 - December 11, 2019 Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos 450 Grand Concourse at 149th Street, Room C-190, Bronx, NY 10451
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Dió-genes Abreu, Aviva Aleph, Valente Arana, María Bouquet Monica S Camin, Hubert Caño, Ángel Delgado Alexis Duque, Borinquen Gallo, Sandra Monterroso Miguel Trelles The Latin American Art Triennial of New York, 2019 edition in terms of its curatorial aim, explores transition as the action and effect of moving from one state to another. The Progressive Transition, the established theme, has overflowed its denotation to become, in a definite sense, an exercise that drives transformation in the arts and culture milieu and among its practitioners. One important factor that we propose to explore is the artists’ need to “feel part of something” that can likewise be recognized and defined by others. The exposition events that comprise the Latin American Art Triennial of New York present the theme of the Progressive Transition from a new and specific point of view, which does not seek to prescribe a practice, rather to situate itself within the context and its broad repercussions. The art chosen for the 2019 edition represents the artist operating within the conceptual landscape of a general transition, appraised as a progressive expression, one of artistic-historic linkages, at the personal or collective level. In recent years the arts management world has shown a marked overall tendency when discussing Latin American art, choosing to refer to it as art from Latin America. This is an emerging convention that seeks to highlight, at the semantic level, its rejection of the roundabout, comprehensive construction of a Latin American imaginarium. We are currently going through a phase in which, whether we like it or not, a new delimitation terminology will be proposed. It’s necessary, then, particularly for an artist, to interact with that process and contextualize it as of his/her own identity experience. Latin American art has begun to be valued independently of its sobriquets. Still, at the functional level, the transcendence of memory and history allow for substantial changes. In a globalized setting where all of us are immigrants, we understand the particular need for affirmation as a group in search of healing with regards to the spaces left behind. As a phenomenon, the transition moves forward within the framework of regional
or gender reference at the personal level. In creative practice, the critical sense of the changes is subject to the formulation of the proposal. Just as muralism in Mexico marks a reflection of social/national content, the new cultures engaged in permanent class struggle merit a sum of identities. Evidence of this lies in new terms used in the US such as Newyorican, Chicano, Dominica-ish or Latinx. The impact of these terms, in the cultural artistic sense, reaffirms heritage transcended in grammatical contradiction, supported magically in a neologism that seeks to reconcile the broad remembrance of what one is and the inexhaustible quest to reaffirm a permanent presence in the ethnic, racial, and reflective gender semantics sense as well as sociopolitical condition. At this time the topic at hand is becoming the object of conversations and discussions in certain US academic circles. The curator’s committee focus is based on a hypothetical method that supports the transformation of the collective. Each work of art answers questions about itself in relation to the other works. Formerly, it was said that art was like theoretical physics, tautology, a specialized field with a reduced audience. We wish to create a more diverse audience, a specific, diverse audience. Our perspective represents a Transition in and of itself, which responds to relevant cultural processes within the context of a highly polarized millennium. Today, more than at any other time in human history, a challenging, stark contrast exists between human beings. There is a perception of broader variety both culturally and racially. This allows the complexity of new lifestyles to go on display. The inability to continue relying on traditional identities encourages a pronounced interest, which reveals itself in the quest for labels to identify a different notion of what we are. Latin America yearns for a different manner of representation. The inadequacy of the migratory present is characterized by difficulty in recognizing other modes of hybrid culture. This doesn’t mean that these notions have no use in the analysis of postcolonial culture, inasmuch as the hybridization processes were particularly important in its formation over the course of an extended phase of differentiations. No other region of the world exists in which such a rich, diverse cultural and racial mix has occurred. This despite the fact that all notions of miscegenation are based on a synthesis that tends to erase imbalances and conflicts, or worse yet, that may be used to create a mask that projects the image of a fair, harmonious melding, as is the case with religious syncretism. Its differences and contradictions coexist within the notion of an integrated nation in which all participate. Certain countries such as Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico offer examples in which many artists are aware of the vital and the non-existent.
They preserve artistic authenticity beyond what they themselves need to express. This critical consciousness is essential in order to disseminate an ideal visual universe that enriches today’s cultural heritage. In this sense, the creative worker seeks to challenge and/or influence sensitive/receptive audiences, whereas in the Progressive Transition, artists, in their attempt to push the limits, question the premises that have long underpinned Eurocentric art. The artists represented in this 2019 edition belong to a variety of different generations. They communicate their ideas and beliefs through their work. The participants have found motivation as regards notions of immigration, religion, social justice, history and environmental awareness-raising, as well as in the attempt to redefine the foundations of art, examining problems relevant to them in broad terms. It’s important to underscore again that contemporary Latin American art has historically involved itself in sociopolitical and economic subject matter. The flexibility of contemporary Latin American Art as a term is no longer capable of encompassing all that it comprises in its totality. A growing number of artists seeks to differentiate their art in radical fashion. The complexity is based on definitions created by exclusionary groups, such as auction houses and the new instances for art appreciation that seek dialogue about a generalization that always finds its framework in a set of subjective factors, which by necessity, do not include all those who work and don’t wish to be pigeonholed. Latin American art benefits from the recent increase in the number of artists who live and work all over the world. They circulate internationally and influence upcoming generations, making inter-contextual communication possible while indirectly consolidating preestablished structures. The constant, active reinvention of Contemporary Art and its worldwide presence through the multitude which operates as of its various circumstances implies, not only a transition in the arts, rather their transformation, with divergence as the starting point, ending in the convergent as the search for meaningful art. At present, artists participate in an international artistic terrain the dynamism of which expands their capacity. The changes decreed regarding the aforementioned paradigms, given that these presented a specifically Latin American art from the outset. Some of the artists, who have only recently come to the fore, have divorced themselves from the marriage between art and nationality or art and regional identity. This doesn’t mean that there is no Latin American consciousness based on autonomous concepts that cannot be identified concretely as characteristics that represent a single culture or country. The key distinction lies in the fact that we share a language. The idea of identity begins to manifest itself in the 19th century, in the identity-culture-based idea of Arielism, its characteristics in artistic practice: the use of identifiable elements such as folklore, religious rites, natural environment and even their own history.
For many years Latin American artists have concerned themselves with borders and how to transcend them. This concern also encompassed how identities are shaped, how they add value to themselves by their own efforts and how they transform through their own limitations, in which most borders are shifting and even vanishing, thus creating new barriers. Within the experiences of the subjective, whether in the physical world or the world of information technology, the work of the contemporary artist does not speak from any specific place, rather from its transitory condition. It’s context, therefore, cannot be a place or a country, but the history of referential memory. As of the seventies, the idea that a break in uniformity has resulted in a favoring of differences and pluralities has become marked in contemporary society. Paradoxically, contemporary Latin American art does not face pessimist self-criticism, given that the primacy of adversity must be accompanied by an optimist outlook. Artists have managed to advance beyond all expectation. At the same time, the dialogue established in this edition of the Latin American Art Triennial of New York is a living example of the Progressive Transition, which perforce encompasses a range of generations in the creative field and in turn has shape-shifted to become part of art in the full process of building its own history. NY Latin American Art Triennial 2019
Footnotes: Freedberg, D.( 1991) El poder de las imágenes: estudios en la historia y teoría de la respuesta. University of Chicago Press, USA. Alexis Mendoza. América Latina, la cultura y el hombre nuevo, pp. 11-112-23. Wasteland Press, 2006. Gerardo Mosquera, “El arte latinoamericano deja de serlo,” ARCO Latino, Madrid, 1996, pp 7-10. Frederico Morais, Las artes plásticas en la América Latina: del trance a lo transitorio, Casa de las Américas, Havana, [1979] 1990, pp 4-5. Olu Oguibe, “En el corazón de la oscuridad”, Third edition, no. 23, summer 1993, pp 3-8 V. Y. Mudimbe, La invención de África, (Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis), 1988. Mónica Amor, “Cartografías: explorando las limitaciones de un paradigma curatorial,” Más allá de lo fantástico. Crítica de arte contemporáneo de América Latina, ed. Gerardo Mosquera, (Instituto de Artes Visuales Internacionales, Londres / MIT Press, Cambridge),1995 Jean Fisher, “Editorial: Algunas reflexiones sobre” Contaminaciones,” Third edition, London, no. 32, Fall 1995, pp 3-7. The Argument Against the Use of the Term “Latinx.” November 19, 2015. Gilbert Guerra and Gilbert Orbea. 74 Comments Latin American Studies, Latinx, linguistics. José Enrique Rodó: Libro Redentores (2011)
PUBLIC
PROGRAMS Opening Reception Wednesday, October 2 6:00-9:00 pm Artist Talk Latin American Art in a Period of Change Wednesday, November 6 7:00-8:30 pm How Latin American artists are integrating contemporary issues such as climate change, resource depletion, displacement resettlement and government corruption in their work. Closing Reception Wednesday, December 11 6:00-9:00 pm Gallery Closures - November 28 + 29
Youth Programs In 2018, the Bronx Council on the Arts launched its much awaited Youth Arts Engagement Program at Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos. This initiative seeks to increase Bronx youth’s awareness of local arts, while encouraging youth to embark on a life of ongoing culture engagement they can relate to. Youth benefit from free, age appropriate art activities that foster critical thinking and public presentation skills. Conversations and Q&A with artists—who often reside in the same neighborhoods as the youth, and who share similar racial and cultural identities, as well as nations of origin—address relevant cultural identity themes and social justice issues familiar to local youth. We encourage organizations, schools and others working with youth aged 14-25 to participate in one of these exciting free group sessions, offering youth an experience they will never forget. Please contact Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos at 718-518-6728. LONGWOOD ARTS PROJECT The Longwood Arts Project is the contemporary visual arts program of the Bronx Council on the Arts, with the mission to support artists and their work, especially emerging artists from underrepresented groups, such as people of color, the LGBT* community, and women. The Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos presents solo and group exhibitions of works of art produced in various media, through interdisciplinary practices that connect emerging artists, communities, and ideas within and beyond the Bronx.
THE HOSTOS CENTER FOR THE ARTS & CULTURE An integral part of Hostos Community College/ CUNY since 1982, the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, which includes two state-of-the-art theaters of 900 and 360 seats each, a black box experimental theater, and a museumgrade art gallery, is a resource for students and faculty in addition to serving the cultural needs of South Bronx residents and neighboring communities. Recognized nationally as a leader in Latin and African-based programming, the Hostos Center creates performing and visual arts forums in which the diverse cultural heritages of its audiences are celebrated and cultivated. In meeting that objective, the Center is dedicated to the development of emerging artists and the creation of new work. www.hostoscenter.org BRONX HISPANIC FESTIVAL The Bronx Hispanic Festival (BHF) is a not-for-profit Bronx based organization created in 2007. During the months of September through November, in partnership with community based organizations and sponsors, BHF launches several cultural events designed to unite the growing and diverse population in NY. The Bronx Hispanic Festival, each year is hosting the Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration with a wide variety of events. Art exhibits, theater presentations, live music performances are significant part of programs, culturally tailored to expose and reach out youth at local schools, elderly population and general public. The calendar of events are designed to enhance, stimulate and recognize in our community the knowledge and understanding of the arts in its different forms as well as the overwhelming contributions that Hispanics bring to the City of New York. www.bxhispanicfestival.org THE BRONX COUNCIL OF THE ARTS Founded by visionary community leaders in 1962, the Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is dedicated to advancing cultural equity in the Bronx. From creative placemaking and arts advocacy to the provision of services for artists and programming for youth and seniors, BCA was the first organization in the Bronx to focus equally on supporting local artists, serving the community, and catalyzing relationships between the two. BCA serves a constituency of some 1.4 million residents, 1,500+ artists and 250 arts and community-based organizations with cultural services and arts programs, including grants, workshops, arts advocacy, and cutting-edge exhibitions. Over the years, BCA has adapted its programs to serve the ever-changing needs of the borough’s cultural ecosystem, evolving into an acclaimed cultural hub for the entire Bronx. www.bronxarts.org
NY LATIN AMERICAN ART TRIENNIAL ALEXIS MENDOZA - Triennial Chief Curator Alexis Mendoza is an artist, writer and independent curator. Born in 1972 in Havana City, Cuba, he moved to the United States in 1995. He graduated in Art History from Havana University in 1994, and was awarded an internship in Fine Art Conservation at the National Museum of Fine Art in Havana (1992-93). Co-founder and co-creator of The Bronx Latin American Art Biennial, Mendoza is also the author of three books including Latin America, The Culture and the New Men; Objective Reference of Painting: The work of Ismael Checo, 1986-2006; and Reflections: The Sensationalism of the Art from Cuba. Presently he lives and work in The Bronx, New York. LUIS STEPHENBERG - Triennial Director Luis Stephenberg Alers was raised in Puerto Rico. He graduated from the Puerto Rican Culture Institute School of Fine Arts, and earned a Master’s degree in painting from the Instituto Allende, Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico. In the 1970s, with a focused interest in conceptual art, he became co-founder of the Movimiento Sintesista Actualizado in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Manifestación Internacional Sintesista for the Arts at the Human Solidarity School in New York City. He is also one of the founders of The Bronx Hispanic Festival and The Latin American Art Biennial in Bronx, New York. He is a curator/alternative exhibit space developer focused on community-oriented projects. Venues Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos | October 2 - December 11, 2019 450 Grand Concourse, C-190, Bronx, New York 10451 Lehman College Art Gallery | October 19, 2019 – January 25, 2020 250 Bedford Park Blvd W., Bronx, New York 10468 BronxArtSpace | September 18 - October 27, 2019 305 E 140th St, Bronx, NY 10454 Taller Boricua Gallery | November 8, 2019 - January 7 2020 1680 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10029 Queens College | September 19th - November 5th 2019 153-49 Reeves Ave, Flushing, NY 11367
B IOGRA P H IES Dió-genes AbrEu was born in Miches, Dominican Republic in 1959.
He has resided in New York since 1983. He studied art in the National School of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo, the State University of New York (SUNY), and received an MFA from City College. His artwork has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in the Dominican Republic, The New Museum for Contemporary Art in New York, the Queens Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Tokyo, Japan.
AVIVA ALEPH was born in Havana, Cuba in 1985 and graduated from the Institute of Superior Art (ISA) in Havana in 1985. Her media includes painting, collage, photography and installations. Her artworks are in private collections in Israel, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the United States. valente arana was born in Mexico in 1983 and is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist. He has worked with multiple artist collectives in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and New York. Based in New York since 2007, his work is an exploration of self-identity, movement, community, migration, population, industrial environment, and introspection. maria bouquet was born and raised in Buenos Aires and moved to New York in 2002 to pursue her Masters of Fine Arts at Pratt Institute. Bouquet graduated with honors and works as a light artist, painter and photographer. Her work has been showcased in major fairs such as Art Basel Miami, AAF Contemporary Art Fair New York and The Other Art Fair by Saatchi Art in Brooklyn as well as at the Museum of Contemporary Art Del Marco & Centro Cultural Borges in Buenos Aires. monica s camin is an Argentine-born, New Jersey and Texas-
based artist. She examines her roots as the daughter of German-Jews who escaped the worst years of the holocaust and found refuge in Argentina. The questions she explores straddles the experiences of being brought up as the daughter of immigrants in Latin America and the experiences of personal immigration and identity. She received formal training at the Paula A. Sarmiento Art Academy and Manuel Belgrano Art University, B.S. Argentina, and with Sidney Simon at the Arts Students League.
Hubert Caño, a resident of San Juan, Puerto Rico, has presented his works in international exhibitions highlighted by his individual exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art of, Puerto Rico entitled Sacred Cartons. He has also exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art of the Dominican Republic, and the International Troyart exhibition at the MUBE Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, São Paulo. His work is also part of the collection
of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Granada. Painting has led him to discover and rediscover a wide variety of media, and to experiment with different possibilities in pictorial techniques.
Ángel delgado was born in Havana in 1965 and lives and works
in Long Beach, California. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro in 1984. In May 1990, Delgado created a performance titled “La esperanza es lo último que se está perdiendo” in the group exhibition “El Objeto Esculturado” at the Centro de Desarrollo de Artes Visuales, that led to the prison where he spent six months of deprivation of freedom. This experience marked his life and his work. Among his most important collective exhibitions are Domestic Anxieties Chapter 3 of “On the Horizon,” at the Perez Art Museum in Miami and “Deconstructing Liberty: A Destiny Manifested” at Muzeo in Anaheim, CA.
alexis duque holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Antioquia, Colombia. His work has been exhibited in numerous venues including El Museo del Barrio, The Drawing Center and Praxis International Gallery in New York; The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Long Beach, CA; Champion Contemporary, Austin, TX; The Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art, Midland, MI; Rudolf Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands and Galleri Oxholm in Copenhagen, Denmark. Duque currently lives and works in New York City. borinquen gallo is an Italian-Puerto Rican Bronx-based artist whose work delves into themes of beauty, community, socio-cultural systems and structures through sculpture and installations made using a range of repurposed materials. Gallo received her BFA in Painting and Sculpture from the Cooper Union for The Advancement of Science and Art, and her MFA in Painting from Hunter College. Gallo has exhibited at Burning in Water Gallery, BRIC Arts Media, Smack Mellon, and The Bronx Museum of the Arts. She is currently Associate Professor of Art and Design Education at Pratt Institute in New York. sandra monterroso, born in 1974, is a Guatemalan artist whose work relates to the acknowledgment of her Mayan roots, exploring mostly the paradoxes of her mestizo indigenous heritage. She studied Graphic Design at the Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala, and holds a Masters in Design Process from Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP). Monterroso’s solo exhibition, Efectos Cruzados was presented in Galería Piegatto in Guatemala City. The exhibit was later on shown at El Museo de Arte, San Salvador (MARTE) In 2014, the artist opened her solo show Actions to Abolish the Desire at the 9.99 Gallery in Guatemala City.
miguel trelles is a Puerto Rican visual artist who lives and works
in New York City’s Lower East Side. A Puerto Rican painter/printmaker Trelles Hernández creates Chino-Latino paintings, Latin Pop silkscreens and “Mesoamerican Fantasy” drawings. An Adjunct Professor at Baruch College, Trelles holds a B.A. in Art History and Studio Art from Brown University and an M.F.A. from Hunter College. Trelles’ paintings have been acquired by several permanent collections -- El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, El Museo de Arte de Ponce, La Fundación Gabarron (Valladolid), as well as El Museo del Barrio and Deutsche Bank, both in New York.
Progressive Transition All works courtesy of the artists Diógenes Abréu Sleeping with the Enemy, 2010 Mixed Media Dimensions Variable
Aviva Aleph Series Absolute “Geometric Concept of the Present”, 2019 Installation, Printed on Aluminum 18 x 24 inches
Valente Arana Untitled (Mural), 2019 Mixed Media Dimensions Variable
Maria Bouquet Blue Star, 2019 Led light, wood, vinyl, crystal polycarbonate 20 x 20 x 2 1/2 inches
Maria Bouquet Fuschia Star, 2019 Led light, wood, vinyl, crystal polycarbonate 20 x 20 x 2 1/2 inches
Maria Bouquet Rhythms, 2019 Led light RGB 15 color with 5 light sequences, polycarbonate crystal, paper, wood & paint 20 x 20 x 2 inches
Maria Bouquet Square Universe, 2019 Led light RGB 15 color with 5 light sequences, polycarbonate crystal, paper, wood & paint 20 x 20 x 2 inches
Monica S Camin Overcoat, 2016 Mixed media with embroidery and silkscreen on fabric 51 x 34 x 3 3/4 inches
Hubert CaĂąo The Path of Transition (El Camino de la Transicion), 2019 Ceramics, Found Object, Assemblage 20 x 55 x 11 inches
Angel Delgado Discurso Ausente (III) (Absent Speech), 2016 Acrylic on Canvas 56 x 70 inches
Angel Delgado Discurso Ausente (XXV) (Absent Speech), 2019 Acrylic on Canvas 51 x 72 inches
Alexis Duque Manigua, 2019 Ink and Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 18 inches
Alexis Duque Comuna, 2019 Ink and Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 18 inches
Alexis Duque Barrio, 2019 Ink and Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 18 inches
Alexis Duque Tower, 2017 Cardboard, modeling paste, ink and acrylic paint 24 x 9 x 9 inches
Alexis Duque Dwelling, 2018 Cardboard, modeling paste, ink and acrylic paint 20 x 10 x 10 inches
Borinquen Gallo Be(e) Sanctuary, 2017 Debris netting, yellow plastic bags, caution tape, live plants Dimensions Variable
Sandra Monterroso Actions to Abolish Yellow Desire, 2014 Videoperformance, 260 crayon drawings on paper 110 x 230 inches Video 7:00 minutes
Sandra Monterroso The Return of Vucub Caquix’s Plume, 2014 Videoperformance 7:19 minutes
Miguel Trelles Contrabandista vs. Contrabandista (trader vs. trader), 2019 Charcoal, Ink and Acrylic on canvas 48 x 66 inches
Miguel Trelles The Green Plane, 2019 Charcoal, Ink and Acrylic on canvas 60 x 48 inches
This exhibition was supported by the Hostos Community College Foundation and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Bronx Council on the Arts is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Arts Midwest and the National Endowment for the Arts; and City Council members Andrew Cohen and Mark Gjonaj. Also supported in part by the Booth Ferris Foundation, Ovation, New Yankee Stadium Community Benefits Fund, Hispanic Federation, the City of New York, and the Department of Youth and Community Development.