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2008


ARTE ≠ VIDA: ACTIONS BY ARTISTS OF THE AMERICAS, 1960-2000
Landmark Exhibition at El Museo del Barrio Highlights Performative Actions by Over 75 Latino / Latin American Artists
On View
January 30 – May 18, 2008

arte


NEW YORK, NY – January 17, 2008 – El Museo del Barrio, New York’s premier Latino and Latin American cultural institution, is pleased to announce its groundbreaking exhibition Arte ≠ Vida: Actions by Artists of the Americas, 1960 – 2000, which will be on view from January 30 through May 18, 2008. “Arte no es vida” surveys, for the first time ever, the vast array of performative actions created over the last half century by Latino artists in the United States and by artists working in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America. Curated by Deborah Cullen, Director of Curatorial Programs at El Museo del Barrio, Arte ≠ Vida is the recipient of a prestigious 2006 Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award.

Through a rich and lively presentation of photographs, video, texts, ephemera, props, and artworks that reference canonical works, the exhibition represents a landmark within the documentation of action art. Arte ≠ Vida expands standard descriptions of “performance art,” revealing how work created by Caribbean, Latino and Latin American artists is often not only dramatized but politicized. An accompanying exhibition catalogue will serve as the first comprehensive resource publication to address this segment of the field of performative art. “El Museo del Barrio has a great history of conceiving and presenting exhibitions that advance deeper understanding of Caribbean and Latin American art and culture,” says Julián Zugazagoitia, Director of El Museo del Barrio. “This project furthers our mission by bringing the Latin American contributions within performative art to a larger audience, and within a historical context, it is particularly resonant for us as it includes the work of El Museo’s founding director, Raphael Montañez Ortiz, a leading action artist well before the museum’s founding in 1969.”

Many of the works included in Arte ≠ Vida have subtle or overt political contexts and content: military dictatorships, civil wars, disappearances, invasions, brutality, censorship, civil rights struggles, immigration issues, discrimination, and economic woes have troubled the artists’ homelands continuously over the past four decades and therefore have infiltrated their consciousness. According to curator Deborah Cullen, “the exhibition title challenges the commonplace idea that art is equivalent to life, and life is art. What is proposed through these many works is that while art affirms and celebrates life with a regenerative force, and sharpens and provokes our critical senses, artistic actions which address inequalities and conflict are not equivalent to real life endured under actual repression.”

Over 75 artists and collectives are represented in Arte ≠ Vida, including ASCO, Tania Bruguera, CADA, Lygia Clark, Papo Colo, Juan Downey, Rafael Ferrer, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Alberto Greco, Alfredo Jaar, Tony Labat, Ana Mendieta, Marta Minujin, Raphael Montañez-Ortiz, Hélio Oiticica, Tunga and contemporary practitioners including Francis Alÿs, Coco Fusco, Regina José Galindo, Teresa Margolles and Santiago Sierra. The exhibition is arranged in four major sections, in which each decade is represented by several specific themes that often cross national boundaries. 1960-1970 looks at select precursors, signaling, destructivism and neoconcretismo; 1970-1980 considers political protest, class struggle, happenings, land/body relationships and border crossing; 1980-1990 focuses upon anti-dictatorship protest and dreamscapes; and 1990-2000 references the Quincentenary, multiculturalism, postmodernism and endurance. An additional section highlights interventions that artists have carried out on television over the past 20 years. In these chronological, thematic groupings, viewers will be able to explore the interconnections among various artists’ actions as well as the surges of activities triggered by specific events in certain countries.

Press Release- Arte ≠ Vida: Actions by Artists of the Americas, 1960 – 2000

 


 

 

2007


EL MUSEO’S BIENAL: THE (S) FILES 007
With Invited Guest Country Ecuador
On View July 25, 2007 – January 6, 2008 

sfiles
Sandra Valenzuela, Media-noche (Midnight), 2007, photograph from mixed media installation, dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist and Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, NY. Photo courtesy of the artist. (deatil)


NEW YORK, NY – July 6, 2007 – El Museo del Barrio, New York’s premier Latino and Latin American cultural institution, will present its fifth edition of El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files from July 25, 2007 through January 6, 2008. El Museo’s Bienal celebrates the experimental, immediate pulse of contemporary art, and supports the work of emerging Latino / Latin American artists based in the New York metropolitan area. The exhibition has been curated by Elvis Fuentes, Associate Curator, El Museo del Barrio, and E. Carmen Ramos, Assistant Curator for Cultural Engagement, The Newark Museum, NJ. In addition, guest curator Rodolfo Kronfle Chambers (independent curator, Guayaquil , Ecuador ), has included in the exhibition a selection of works by five artists from Ecuador , this year’s invited guest country.

“The (S) Files” are literally “the selected files”, as many of the works on display have been chosen from the unsolicited submissions to El Museo’s Artists’ Archive over the past two years. This selection for the 5 thbienal is the most expansive to date, with 51 artists showcasing work in traditional mediums such as drawing, painting and photography, as well as more experimental projects incorporating light, sound, and interactive elements, mobile sculptures and site-specific installations.

“The vitality of our bienal is a testament to the artistic contributions Latinos are instilling within New York City ,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Director of El Museo del Barrio. “The dynamism continues to increase as we celebrate the fifth edition of El Museo’s Bienal, reflecting the importance of New York , especially among Latino and Latin American artists, as a capital of culture and of the arts.”

Press Release- El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files

 



ART AGORA
An Exhibition of El Museo’s Bienal:  The (S) Files 007 

On View September 13, 2007 – January 6, 2008 at Instituto Cervantes

agora
Melissa A. Calderón, Cock (Gallo), 2007, copper, brass, floor tiles, morning glory horn and ambient sound from bodega, dimensions variable, Colllection of the artist. Photo Courtesy of the artist. (detail)

NEW YORK, NY – September 2007 – Instituto Cervantes New York will host Art Agora from September 13, 2007 – January 6, 2008, as part of El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 007, the exhibition on view at El Museo del Barrio through January 6, 2008.  Eight of the 51 artists participating in El Museo’s Bienal, a survey of emerging Latino and Latin American artists working in the New York metropolitan area, will present work in Art Agora.  This 5th edition of the bienal is the most expansive to date, extending beyond El Museo del Barrio and into the galleries of Instituto Cervantes, bringing the most immediate contemporary Latino art to bridge these two cultural institutions. The exhibitions have been curated by Elvis Fuentes, Associate Curator, El Museo del Barrio, and E. Carmen Ramos, Assistant Curator for Cultural Engagement, The Newark Museum, NJ. 

Corresponding with the mission of Instituto Cervantes, whose commitment is rooted in bridging Spanish-speaking audiences worldwide, Art Agora explores the fragility and fluidity of language.  The exhibition, whose title references the ancient Greek forum, or place for gathering for debate, investigates the public dimension of art and the ways in which art intervenes with issues of public interest. Several of the works included in Art Agora emphasize the precariousness inherent in translation, and other work communicates through iconography, style and form to establish dialogues within art history. 

Press Release - Art Agora

 



THE DISAPPEARED / LOS DESAPARECIDOS
On View February 23, 2007 - June 17, 2007


Luis Camnitzer, From the Uruguayan Torture Series, 1983, suite of 35 four-color photo etchings, 29.5 x 22 in. each, Courtesy of the artist. Photo Courtesy of the artist. (detail)

New York, NY – January 30, 2007 –-El Museo del Barrio, New York’s premier Latino and Latin American cultural institution, will present The Disappeared (Los Desaparecidos) from February 23 – June 17, 2007. This traveling exhibition, organized by the North Dakota Museum of Art and curated by Laurel Reuter, brings together visual artists’ responses to the tens of thousands of persons who were kidnapped, tortured, killed and “vanished” in Latin America by repressive right-wing military dictatorships during the late-1950s to the 1980s.

The Disappeared (Los Desaparecidos) gathers 14 contemporary living artists from seven countries in Central and South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay and Venezuela), all of whose work contends with the horrors and violence stemming from the totalitarian regimes in each of their nations during the mid- to late-20 th century. Some of the artists worked in the resistance; some had parents or siblings who were disappeared; others were forced into exile. The youngest were born into the aftermath of those dictatorships. And still others have lived in countries maimed by endless civil war. These artists whose work is represented in the exhibition are Marcelo Brodsky , Luis Camnitzer , Arturo Duclos , Juan Manuel Echavarría , Antonio Frasconi , Nicolás Guagnini , Nelson Leirner, Sara Maneiro , Cildo Meireles , Oscar Muñoz , Ivan Navarro , Luis González Palma , Ana Tiscornia and Fernando Traverso . Also included is a collaborative installation Identity/Identidad by a collective of 13 Argentinean artists.

Press Release - The Disappeared (Los Desaparecidos)

 



 

2006


¡MERENGUE! VISUAL RHYTHMS / RITMOS VISUALES

-and

THIS SKIN I'M IN: Contemporary Dominican Art from El Museo del Barrio’s Permanent Collection
On View September 29, 2006 – January 21, 2007


Tony Capellán, Caribbean Sea, 1996, 500 found sandals with barbed wire, installation, dimensions variable, Collection El Museo del Barrio, NY, Acquired through "PROARTISTA: Sustaining the Work of Living Contemporary Artists," a fund from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust, in collaboration with the artist and Samson Projects, Boston, 2006.14. Photo by: Julio Grinblatt. (detail) 


Spanning the 20th century (1933-present), ¡Merengue! introduces to New York more than 50 works by 36 artists exploring the pictorial representation of merengue, the genre of music and dance that has come to define Dominican culture and identity. This overview will be presented concurrently with This Skin I’m In: Contemporary Dominican Art from El Museo del Barrio’s Permanent Collection, featuring mixed-media works using the concept of skin as metaphor and membrane to evoke the experiences of Dominicans and Dominican Americans.

Press Release - ¡Merengue!

Press Release - This Skin I'm In

 


 

HÉCTOR MÉNDEZ CARATINI: THE EYE OF MEMORY — THREE DECADES, 1974-2003
Curated by Ricardo Viera, Lehigh University Art Galleries
On View June 10 – September 10, 2006


Héctor Méndez Caratini, Máscara de Santiago Apostol, Loíza, 1980, cibachrome print, 26.5 x 18.25 in, Collection of the artist. Photo Courtesy of the artist. (detail)

Selections from this traveling exhibition present Méndez Caratini’s 30-year trajectory of photography and videos. Méndez Caratini (b. 1949, San Juan ) is acclaimed for his examination of historical changes and the cultural heritage of emerging Caribbean nations. Placing his photographs in dialogue with santos de palo , masks, and other folk art objects from El Museo del Barrio’s Permanent Collection allows for first-hand examination of the objects documented.

Press Release - Héctor Méndez Caratini

 


 

FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES: EARLY IMPRESSIONS
On View February 24 – May 21, 2006

felix
"Untitled" (Oscar Wilde), 1995, photo etching on torn paper, edition 204/250, 25 A.P., 2 P.P., 2 additional proofs, published by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, ARG# GF 1995-2, Collection of El Museo del Barrio, NY, Gift of Warren A. James, 2006.1

New York, NY – February 2006–- El Museo del Barrio New York’s premier Latino and Latin American cultural institution, will present Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Early Impressions from February 24 – May 21, 2006, in collaboration with El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña and the Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: América Latina y el Caribe . Organized by Deborah Cullen , Director of Curatorial Programs at El Museo, the exhibition expands upon an original presentation curated by Elvis Fuentes as part of the Trienal (December 2004-March 2005). While the renowned conceptual work of Cuban-born Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) continues to be internationally embraced, the creative output from his early period in Puerto Rico has yet to be fully explored. Never before seen outside of Puerto Rico , this exhibition will highlight Gonzalez-Torres’ very early efforts from his formative years, relating them to selections from his mature and well-known artistic oeuvre.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Early Impressions will present documents, working papers, and materials from the artist’s period of study and artistic production and activity in Puerto Rico (1978-1985). This material includes poems, photographs, texts and conceptual projects published in newspapers and magazines; stills documenting performances; experimental videos; sketches and proposals for projects never realized; and ephemera such as press releases and invitations. Twelve mature works, borrowed from public and private collections, will be placed in the context of these preliminary projects to reveal the trajectory of Gonzalez-Torres’ conceptual, personal and political concerns as well as the development of his innovative use of popular, mass-reproducible mediums. Included in this exhibition are news clipping works, photograph-imprinted puzzles, and three of the artist’s well-known paper “stack” pieces that shift traditional ideas of ownership, value and meaning by inviting the viewer to individualize the experience of the work by taking a sheet. These stacks simultaneously play upon the idea of the printed poster, an important form in Puerto Rican and Cuban art.

Press Release - Felix Gonzalez-Torres

 




2005

 

BETWEEN THE LINES: TEXT AS IMAGE
An Homage to Lorenzo Homar and the Reverend Pedro Pietri
On View February 24 – September 10, 2006

betweenJosé Rosa Castellanos, Centenario de la abolición de la esclavitud en Puerto Rico (Centenary of the Abolition of Slavery in Puerto Rico), 1973, Silkscreen, 32 x 26 1/4 x 1 1/2 in., Collection of El Museo del Barrio, NY, W91.1158. Photo Courtesy of EL Museo del Barrio's Archives.

This project features works by two artists that utilized language within their visual arts practices: the recently-deceased master printmaker Lorenzo Homar (1913-2004) and the renowned poet Reverend Pedro Pietri (1944-2004). Connections will be made from Homar’s calligraphic images that honor poets and bookmaking, to the works of his colleagues and students, including Rafael Tufiño, Antonio Frasconi, and Antonio Martorell. Pietri’s personal, political and performative projects will be linked to the practices of another generation of artists, including Papo Colo, Adál, and Guillermo Gómez-Peña.

Press Release - Between the Lines

 


 


 

EL MUSEO’S BIENAL: THE (S) FILES / THE SELECTED FILES
On View August 31, 2005 – January 29, 2006

sfiles06
Iliana emilia garcia, I love (Yo quiero), 2005, neon light, edition 3 of 3, 36 x 39 x 2.5 in., Collection of El Museo del Barrio, NY, Acquired through "PROARTISTA: Sustaining the Work of Living Contemporary Artists," a fund from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust, 2006.12. Photo courtesy of the artist. (detail)

NEW YORK, NY – August 2005 – El Museo del Barrio, New York’s premier Latino and Latin American cultural institution, is excited to announce our fall exhibition. El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files / The Selected Files highlights the most cutting-edge art produced by emerging Latino/Latin American artists working in the greater New York area. While celebrating the experimental immediacy of contemporary art, the project offers the excitement of noting rising talents. This selection of innovative works by 40 artists includes traditional media such as painting, drawing, photography and video, but also showcases more experimental work incorporating sound, performative elements, interactive projects and site-specific installations that will extend beyond the galleries into the lobby and courtyard as well as into the students’ taller, or workshop. This 4 th edition of El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files continues El Museo’s commitment to up-and-coming artists: many of the works on display have been chosen from the unsolicited submissions to El Museo’s Artists’ Archive over the past two years. The exhibition has been curated by Deborah Cullen , Director of Curatorial Programs, El Museo del Barrio, and Miki Garcia, Executive Director , Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum. For the first time, the 2005 bienal features an invited guest curator who, spotlighting a specific country or region, will bring artists from their home nation to be represented in the show. This year, guest Marysol Nieves, Curator of Contemporary Art, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico , has selected four artists from Puerto Rico for inclusion in the bienal.

Press Release - El Museo's Bienal: The (S) Files

 


 

MEXICO: THE REVOLUTION AND BEYOND
Photographs by Casasola 1900-1940

Curated by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio
On View April 13 - July 31, 2005

casasola
Agustín Victor Casasola, Soldaderas” and soldiers with the railway administrator, Mexico City, April 1913, Collection of The Casasola Archive, National Photography Library of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Pachuca, Mexico. (detail)

New York, NY March 2005 – El Museo del Barrio, New York’s premier Latino and Latin American cultural institution, is pleased to announce the opening of Mexico: The Revolution and Beyond. Photographs by Casasola 1900 - 1940. This remarkable exhibition will be on view from April 13 through July 31, 2005. One of Latin America’s first photojournalists, Agustín Victor Casasola documented the tumultuous events of the early twentieth century in a style that ranged from the celebratory to the unforgettably tragic.  The exhibition of 92 selected photographs, culled from the nearly 500,000-image archive, which is part of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico, (INAH); was organized by leading Mexican photography specialist and well-known photographer Pablo Ortiz Monasterio.

The images presented in the exhibition document the history of a nation in the midst of transformation. As it entered a new era, Mexico sought to rid itself of a socially repressive regime. Photographers looked at the people in a celebratory way by focusing on figures of prominence as well as everyday citizens. The themes of revolution, work, modernity, and urban life are captured in images that record an epoch full of drama and hope. The work of the Casasola photographers included in the archives is rich in historic content but also hints at the great power of the medium in shaping the way that history is viewed and perceived.

Focusing on eight distinct themes, the exhibition reveals Casasola’s compelling choices, technical expertise, and extraordinary drive to document his country during one of its critical periods.

About the artist

Agustín Victor Casasola was born in Mexico City in 1874, began working in typographic workshops at an early age, and was working as a reporter by the age of twenty.   At the turn of the century he had established himself as a photographer.  In 1912, he opened one of the first professional photography agencies in partnership with his brother Miguel; later his children and grandchildren joined the partnership.  Casasola’s motto for the company was, “I have or can produce the photo you need.”  The agency helped Casasola realize his lifelong obsession:  the creation of a photographic archive that recorded the history of Mexico as it unfolded.  

Press Release - Mexico: The Revolution and Beyond

 




2004

 

RETRATOS: 2000 YEARS OF LATIN AMERICAN PORTRAITS
Curated by Fatima Bercht, Miguel Bretos, Carolyn Kinder Carr
and Marion Oettinger
On View December 3, 2004 – March 20, 2005

retratos
Andrés de Islas, Ana María de la Campa y Cosy Ceballos, 1776, Oil on canvas, 42 1/2 x 32 1/4 in., Rodrigo Rivero-Lake Collection. Photo by: Michel Zabé. (detail)

This exhibition, a collaborative effort between El Museo del Barrio, the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the National Portrait Gallery, marks the first time a comprehensive exhibition of Latin American portraiture has been organized. It will show both the depth and breadth of the tradition and explore the meaning of this interesting art form for the societies represented, providing us valuable insight into the minds of both the artist and the sitter, as well as their time and place. Latin America has a long and rich tradition of portraiture. For over 2000 years, portraits have been used to preserve the memory of the deceased, provide continuity between the living and the dead, bolster the social standing of the aristocracy, mark the deeds of the mighty, advance the careers of politicians, record rites of passage, and mock symbols of the status quo. Comprised of approximately 100 portraits, in a variety of different media, this exhibition will contain examples from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the United States, from the pre-Columbian period through the Vice-regal era, Independence, and the modern and contemporary periods. Early portraiture will be represented through the ceramics and codices of the ancient Moche of Peru, the classic Maya of Mexico and Central America, and the Mixtec painters. The Viceregal period (1520-1820) will present portraits symbolizing the Spanish Crown’s power in America, the wealth and social standing of particular men and women, and generic portraits which attempted to create an imagined ideal social order through “caste paintings.” As Latin American republics achieved independence from Spain, France, and Portugal, leaders such as Toussaint l’Ouverture, Simón Bolívar, San Martín, Hidalgo, and Morelos became symbols of the break, their portraits serving as emotional and political touchstones in the formation and maintenance of new governments and national identities. Only decades later, other bold individuals, such as Mexico’s Benito Juárez and Cuba’s José Marti, were commemorated. The final section of the exhibition will present twentieth-century Latin American portraiture—while it records deeply entrenched oligarchs, bold revolutionaries, and Nobel laureates—also presents the emergence of self-portraits and satirical portraits: popular commentaries on the self and the world.

Press Release - Retratos: 2000 years of Latin American Portraits

 


 

NO LO LLAMES PERFORMANCE/ DON'T CALL IT PERFORMANCE
A traveling exhibition curated by Paco Barragán
On View August 18 - November 7, 2004

performance
Carlos Amorales, Arena dos de Mayos (2nd of May Arena), 1997, video, 2:38, Collection of the artist. Video still captured by El Museo del Barrio, NY.

Since the 1960s and 1970s, performance has been a pivotal contemporary art form. The term ‘performance’ often refers to an action, an event, a happening, an enactment, a set piece, a form of body art, a vocal or audio event, or any other artistic undertaking that happens in time. Performance has exerted a strong influence on the field of video, which often serves to record, shape and present performative actions.

No lo llames performance/Don’t Call it Performance examines recent activities gathered under what has become known as ‘performative’ by presenting the work of over forty artists, paying particular attention to numerous contemporary Latino and Latin American practitioners. Through a mixture of screenings and live presentations, the exhibition provides a framework for analysing contemporary performative works, while drawing attention to both the similarities and differences between past and present.

Performance remains the only discipline within the scope of the visual arts that offers a direct, vivid, spontaneous product without recourse to mediation. For many artists, the body continues to be the most accessible and the most malleable of materials, with the capacity to generate immediate critical discourses about everyday politics and life.

Paco Barragán is an independent curator, based in Madrid. No lo llames performance/Don’t Call it Performance was organized by the Audiovisuals Department of the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Nacional (Madrid, Spain), and presented there in 2003. It traveled to Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (Seville, Spain), Centro Párraga (Murcia, Spain).

 


 

MoMA AT EL MUSEO: LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN ART FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
On View: March 5 - July 25, 2004

moma
Installation View. MoMa at El Museo: Latin American and Caribbean Art from The Museum of Modern Art. Photo Courtesy El Museo del Barrio's Archives.

The Museum of Modern Art and El Museo del Barrio, both of New York, have jointly organized the first exhibition highlighting MoMA's outstanding collection of Latin American and Caribbean art. MoMA at El Museo presents a selection of more than 100 paintings, sculptures and works on paper created between the 1920s and 2002.

The exhibition is organized chronologically, reflecting the history of acquisitions and donations, as well as the shifting politics that influenced collecting.

The first gallery is dedicated to the initial, major acquisitions of 1935; works by "Los tres grandes" Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as Candido Portinari, and Wifredo Lam.

The second section surveys acquisitions after 1942, when the Inter-American fund was established. Important paintings by well-known modernists, such as Frida Kahlo, Rufino Tamayo, and Carlos Merida; Antonio Berni; Matta; Amalia Peláez; and Joaquín Torres-García were incorporated.

The third portion focuses on the 1960s, when acquisitions of drawings, print portfolios, and Pop and Op art works markedly increased. Seminal works by Rafael Montañez-Ortiz, Fernando Botero, Julio Le Parc, Gego, Marisol, and Jesús Rafael Soto entered the collection. The exhibition concludes with a compelling range of recent works, created by outstanding contemporary artists. Among them are works by: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Enrique Chagoya, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ana Mendieta, Los Carpinteros, Guillermo Kuitca, Juan Sánchez, Arturo Herrera, Cildo Meireles, Helio Oiticica and Gabriel Orozco.

A lavishly-illustrated, full-color catalogue, and a diverse range of educational programs, will accompany the exhibition.

 




2003

 

VOCES Y VISIONES: HIGHLIGHTS FROM EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO'S PERMANENT COLLECTION
On View November 14, 2003 - February 8, 2004

voces
Juan Sánchez, El Padre, El Hijo, El Espíritu Santo (The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), 1995, Lithograph with affixed color Xerox, Workshop Proof II, 22 x 30 in. (irregular), Collection of El Museo del Barrio, NY, Gift of Robert Blackburn, Director of The Printmaking Workshop, New York, W2001.16.60. (detail)

New York, NY (November 5, 2003) - El Museo del Barrio, proudly presents Voces y Visiones: Highlights from El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection, opening on November 14, 2003 and will remain on view through February 8, 2004. The long-awaited exhibition will feature over 100 works that are considered the major highlights of the museum's permanent collection and display broad range of artistic expressions in a variety of media. The works also represent the complex, diverse reality of contemporary Latino constructs of identity and culture. Voces y Visiones presents work that span from pre-Columbian artifacts to arresting contemporary art. Organized to coincide and mark El Museo del Barrio's 35th anniversary, Voces is the first comprehensive, traveling exhibition the museum has organized.

Press Release - Voces y Visiones

 


 

RAFAEL TUFIÑO: PINTOR DEL PUEBLO/ PAINTER OF THE PEOPLE
Organized by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator; curated by Dr. Teresa Tío for the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan

This exhibition will be Rafael Tufiño's first major retrospective in the United States, presenting the entire breadth of his work (prints, paintings, drawings and sculpture), as selected from the major retrospective held in Puerto Rico from July 6 through October 7, 2001. Tufiño (b. Brooklyn, 1922) is one of the central figures in the history of twentieth-century Puerto Rican art. A member of Generación del Cincuenta ("The Fifties Generation"), Tufiño has been of one of the major forces in founding and furthering modern Puerto Rican art-both on the Island and in the Caribbean diaspora of New York. Tufiño was one of the founders and leaders of the Island's print tradition, and has been one of the hemisphere's most distinguished poster-makers, an illustrator of books and stories, a draftsman and letterist. The expressive and gestural purity of his draftsmanship became a trademark of Puerto Rican graphics of the 1950s and 1960s. Tufiño consistently depicted the Puerto Rican people in all their daily expressions, working and celebrating. Tufiño made many images of dance, music, and religious festivals, and El Museo will offer public music and dance programs and folk art demonstrations as programming to accompany the exhibition.

 




2002

 

EL MUSEO’S BIENAL: THE (S) FILES 2002/ THE SELECTED FILES
Co-curated by Deborah Cullen, Curator, El Museo del Barrio, and Victoria Noorthoorn, Curator, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires-Colección Costantini (MALBA)
On View October 24, 2002 - February 16, 2003

sfiles02
Nicolás Dumit Estévez, La Papa Móvil, 2001, performance/installation, photo taken during Días Hábiles, Bienal del Caribe, Santo Domingo, DR. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Capturing the unique energy of innovative contemporary artists based in the greater New York area, The (S) Files are "Selected" from on-going submissions to El Museo. The (S) Files expands the definition of contemporary Latino/Latin American art, nurtures the development of groundbreaking young artists, and reinforces El Museo's commitment to emerging artists by fostering an inclusive, ever-broadening group of artist-stakeholders.

sfiles02pic

 


 

FRIDA KAHLO, DIEGO RIVERA, AND TWENTIETH-CENTRY MEXICAN ART
The
Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection
On View April 28th - September 26, 2002


The Gelman Collection, widely regarded as the most significant private holding of twentieth-century Mexican art, was assembled by the late cinematic mogul Jacques Gelman and his wife Natasha. The superb collection features works by Kahlo, Rivera, and other masters of modern Mexican art, including Gunther Gerzso, Maria Izquierdo, Carlos Mérida, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siquieros, and Rufino Tamayo.

 




2001

 

O FIO DA TRAMA / THE THREAD UNRAVELED
Contemporary Brazilian Art

On View October 12, 2001 - February 3, 2002

otrama
Miguel Rio Branco, Ray Gun, 1993, silver dye bleach print, 80 x 80 cm, Courtesy of Galería André Milan, São Paulo. Photo Courtesy of Galería André Milan, São Paulo and the artist. (detail)

El Museo del Barrio is pleased to present O Fio da Trama/The Thread Unraveled: Contemporary Brazilian Art, an exciting exhibition of sixty-three works in diverse media, created from the 1990s through early 2000, by twenty-one contemporary Brazilian artists. The exhibition, which opens on October 12th and remains on view through February 3rd, 2002, is part of a celebration of Brazilian art and culture that includes exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. O Fio da Trama/The Thread Unraveled has been organized by El Museo del Barrio in collaboration with BrazilConnects, an independent nonprofit organization that celebrates, preserves and supports Brazil's most treasured cultural and ecological assets.



 

VOICES FROM OUR COMMUNITIES
On View through September 16, 2001

voices

Voices From Our Communities culminates a comprehensive five-year effort to explore the connection between a museum's permanent collection and its highly diverse audiences. This exhibition features over 100 works created by Latino artists in the United States, as well as by artists working in the Caribbean and Latin America. Noteworthy pieces include paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and mixed-media works by contemporary artists, including Rafael Ferrer, Miriam Hernandez, Alfredo Jaar, Pepón Osorio, and Liliana Porter, as well as Shipibo vessels and Haitian vodun flags, Puerto Rican ex-votos and colorful Chicano prints, Mexican masks and an extraordinary 17th century book by Bartolomé de las Casas. Pre-Columbian and traditional arts, such as masks, textiles, and devotional objects, are also highlighted. The variety and richness of artworks in this exhibition derive, in great measure, from the expansion of El Museo del Barrio's mission in 1994 to represent and include, beyond the founding Puerto Rican community, all the Latin American communities that are transforming El Barrio, New York City, and the country at large. Members of these communities as well as artists, curators, anthropologists, etc. have been invited to contribute to the interpretation of works in the collection. The soundtrack of their diverse "voices" and points-of-view will be incorporated as a crucial and lively element of the exhibition, through a sound installation in each gallery.

 


 

CONTEMPORÁNEA 2001: PERMANENT VISIBILITY BY INGRID MENÉNDEZ
Curated by Deborah Cullen, Curator, El Museo del Barrio
On View June 12th - September 16, 2001

contemporanea
Ingrid Menendez, Permanent Visibility, 2001, site specific installation, video still. Photo Courtesy of El Museo del Barrio Archives

Ingrid Menéndez, a Venezuelan sculptor (b. 1963, Caracas) living in New York, creates an interactive installation. Each visitor, alone in an intimate gallery, must decide on how to interface with her experimental artwork. Menéndez's work investigates the boundaries between private and public experience, and the ever-increasing role played by the technologies of surveillance.

 


 

HERE & THERE / AQUÍ Y ALLÁ: SIX ARTIST FROM SAN JUAN
On View February 8th - May 20th, 2001

Here & There / Aquí y Allá refers to the rich and complex cultural relationship that contemporary Puerto Rican artists from San Juan have developed with the United States and, especially, New York. The exhibition showcases exciting new work by six artists based in San Juan: Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Charles Juhász-Alvarado, Ana Rosa Rivera Marrera, Freddie Mercado, Carlos Rivera Villafañe, and Aaron SalabarrÍas Valle.

Each artist is repreented by a one-room installation using such wide-ranging media as video projection, sculpture, found objects, color photographs, drawings and plastic ready-mades.

Click here to visit the web site.

 


 

ANTONIO FRASCONI: LANGSTON HUGHES' "LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN". A Portfolio of Woodcuts
On View February 8th - May 20th, 2001

A suite of 32 woodcut and relief prints inspired by Hughes' poem. Organized by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator, as part of the Focos series, this exhibition highlights the contribution by Frasconi, an internationally-recognized master of the woodcut print.

Frasconi's woodcut illustrations and sophisticated design deftly compliment Hughes' eloquent words. Informal typeface used for Hughes' poem is, at times overlaid directly onto images; other times, it stands alone. The striking images form a seamless whole with the text, offering the viewer a powerful and memorable experience.

 


 

NEIGHBORS: AND INSTALLATION BY LEANDRO ERLICH
On View February 8th - May 20th, 2001

Commisioned by El Museo del Barrio and curated by Dr. Julia P. Herzberg, Consulting Curator Erlich's Neighbors is an architectural installation that questions notions of reality.

The installation functions like a mysterious set design in which viewers actually participate in the narrative. In a typical apartment building corridor, we expect things to be what they appear to be. Erlich, however, confounds us by interweaving the real and the illusory, paradoxically proving and disproving the adage, "What you see is what you get."

 


 

TAÍNO: ANCIENT VOYAGERS OF THE CARIBBEAN
Organized by Dr. Dicey Taylor, Guest Curator, coordinated by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator of El Museo del Barrio, and designed by Ted Anderson and Donna Ostraszewski, of the Gallery Association of New York State, Hamilton, N.Y.


Taíno culture, Dominican Republic 1200-1500 A.D. Amulet (Amuleto) Gift of Dicey Taylor, PC2000.8.1

Taíno: Ancient Voyagers of the Caribbean presents rare and beautiful objects in stone, ceramic, shell and bone that illustrate diverse spheres of Taíno culture: mythology and cosmology, religion and ancestor worship, chiefs and chiefdoms, festivals and ball games, navigation and astronomy, ceramics and cuisine and daily life and technology.

Taíno: Ancient Voyagers of the Caribbean is a Permanent Exhibition that opened October 26, 2000.



2000+

The following is a partial listing of exhibitions El Museo del Barrio has presented over the past thirty years. Please check back as we update and expand this area of El Museo's website in the future.

 

Latin American Artist-Photographers from the Lehigh University Art Galleries Collection
October 26, 2000 - January 14, 2001

Organized by Guest Curator Ricardo Viera, Director/Curator of the Lehigh University Art Galleries, Professor of Art at Lehigh University and a nationally recognized specialist of Latin American and Caribbean photography.

 

Nacimiento: A Christmas Crèche
Organized by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator, El Museo del Barrio
Gift of the Chase Manhattan Bank to the Permanent Collection
December 9, 2000 - January 14, 2001

 

¡Llegaron Los Muertos! Monumentos para los que viven en nuestros corazónes by Santiago-Hoge
Organized by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator, El Museo del Barrio
Ocotber 4, 2000 - December 3, 2000

 

Este Es Mi Mexico
Organized by Miriam de Uriarte, Director of Education, El Museo del Barrio
An exhibition of children's artwork in collaboration with the Instituto Mexicano Cultural of New York, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Mexico City.
August 14, 2000 - December 1, 2000

 

The Caribbean and Latin American Traditional Art Series
Between Heaven and Earth: Devotional Art from Puerto Rico and Mexico

Curated by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator, El Museo del Barrio

 

Our Lady of the Apocalypse
The Virgin of Guadalupe and Other Miracles

Curated by Sophia Vackimes, Guest Curator
Through January 14, 2001

 

The S-Files/Selected Files
Curated by Deborah Cullen, Curator and Yasmin Ramierez, Adjunct Curator
This summer showcase exhibition featuring the most innovative contemporary artists who have submitted work to El Museo del Barrio. This year, The S-Files will feature 27 artists (average age 34), none of who have shown at El Museo del Barrio before.
June 13, 2000 - September 24, 2000

 

Ernesto Pujol: Conversion of Manners
Curated by Julia P. Herzberg
Through a series of photographs and vintage Carthusian, Franciscan and Jesuit habits, Ernesto Pujol enacts a spiritual performance. He presents fragmented moments of a sacred narrative through the measured poses, gestures, and movements of body language in this site-specific installation by Ernesto Pujol.
June 13, 2000 - September 24, 2000

 

Latin American Still-Life: Reflections of Time and Place
Curated by Clayton C. Kirking and Edward J. Sullivan
Organized by the Katonah Museum of Art
This unprecedented exhibition of more that 80 works examines how 20th Century Latin American artists use the still life genre to portray national movements, historical events, socio-political and cultural trends.
February 17, 2000 - May 21, 2000

 

Franco Mondini-Ruiz: Mexique
Curated by Julia P. Herzberg, Consulting Curator
This site-specific installation recreates in minature the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City. The work displays minature floating gardens, canals, temples, palaces and marketplaces populated by hundreds of paper cutout figures in 18th Century European dress.
February 17, 2000 - May 21, 2000

 

Carlos Irizarry: The '60s Plus Picasso
Curated by Yasmin Ramirez, Adjunct Curator
A suite of eight prints by Carlos Irizarry comes from El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection. This exhibition is the first major presentation of Irizarry's early work in the United States in over a decade.
February 17, 2000 - May 21, 2000

 

Pressing the Point: Parallel Expressiosn in the Graphic Arts of the Chicano and Puerto Rican Movements
Curated by Henry Estrada, Guest Curator and Yasmin Ramirez, Adjunct Curator of Contemporary Art
This exhibition is a survey of prints and posters created by artists active in the artistic and social struggles of the 1960's and 1970's explores the parallels between Chicano and Puerto Rican printmakers.
September 24, 1999 - January 9, 2000

 

Juan Sanchez: Printed Convictions Prints amd Related Works on Paper
Organized by The Jersey City Museum and Curated by Alejandro Anreus
Julia P. Herzberg, Consulting Curator
This exhibition of 48 works by Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican artist Juan Sanchez, combines graphic excellence and innovation with sociopolitical advocacy through textss and images from Puerto Rican history, contemporary media and culture, personal writings and mementos.
September 24, 1999 - January 9, 2000

 

Pepon Osorio: TRANSBORICUA
Contemporánea Gallery
Julia P. Herzberg, Consulting Curator
This multimedia installation combines sculpture, photography, video, handmade and found objects exploring the transformation of Puerto Rican identity in the light of recent demographic changes in El Barrio and across the United States.
September 24, 1999 - January 9, 2000

 

Caribbean and Latin American Traditional Arts Series Part I
Puerto Rican Santos de Palo: Sculptures Between Heaven and Earth

Curated by Fatima Bercht
This exhibition will feature 45 santos de palo (saints made of wood) from El Museo del Barrio's permanent collection of santos, one of the country's finest. The majority of these works were created by traditional, self-taught Puerto Rican carvers-- santeros--of rural, pre-industrial Puerto Rico between approximately 1850 and 1940.
September 24, 1999 - October 31, 1999

 

Viva la Muerte: Artwork Inspired by the Day of the Dead Celebration
Curated by Eduardo Pineda and Deborah Lawrence
An exhibition of 22 paintings, drawings and prints be Chicano artists in the San Francisco Bay area who have been documenting the importance of the Day of the Dead celebration in the Chicano and Mexican communities.
September 24, 1999 - January 9, 2000

 

A Tribute to En Foco: 25 Years of Making Photographic History
A digital presentation of En Foco's collection, summarizing 25 years of work by over 60 photographers. The exhibition also features images from En Foco's first portfolio exhibited at El Museo in 1978 and now a part of its permanent collection.
September 24, 1999 - January 9, 2000

 

1998 - 1999

 

The S-files: The Selected Files
23 of the most creative contemporary artists who have submitted work to El Museo del.
Curated by Deborah Cullen and Carolina Ponce de León. San Francisco
Park, Center, Court and East Galleries
April 8, 1999 - June 30,1999

 

Marta Chilindron: Cinema Kinesis
Contemporánea Gallery
April 8, 1999 - June 30,1999

 

Puerto Rican Santos de Palo: Sculptures Between Heaven and Earth
Curated by Fatima Bercht
Alegría Gallery
April 8, 1999 - June 30,1999

 

Altares de los Orishas: Afro-Caribbean Sacred Spaces
Curated by Fatima Bercht
Borinquin Gallery
April 8, 1999 - June 30,1999

 

Buscando Milagros - Searching for Miracles: Photographs by Héctor Méndez Caratini
Curated by Fatima Bercht
Borinquen Gallery
April 8, 1999 - June 30,1999

 

The Art of Jack Delano
Organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
East and Alegría Galleries
November 13, 1998 - February 28, 1999

 

Gods, Spirits, and Legends: Twentieth-Century Art from El Salvador
Center, Park and Court Galleries
November 14,1998 - February 28,1999

 

Casitas: Gardens of Reclamation
Ejlat Feuerand Daniel Winterbottom
Project Wall
November 14,1998 - February 28,1999

 

Domino/Dominó by Bibiana Suarez
Contemporánea Gallery
November 14, 1998 - February 7, 1999

 

1997 - 1998

 

El Mexterminator II (Ethno-Cyborgs & Artificial Savages)
Guillermo Gómez-Peña & Roberto Sifuentes
Alegría Gallery
June 1998

 

Beatriz González
Curated by Carolina Ponce de León
Center, Park and Court Galleries
May 29 - October 31,1998

 

Carmen Herrera
Curated by Carolina Ponce de León
East Gallery
April 17 - June 28, 1998

 

Brian Nissen: Bronze Sculptures
East Gallery and Project Wall
January 29 - March 31, 1998

 

Recurrent Memories by Diamantina González
Curated by Fatima Bercht
Contemporánea Gallery
January 29 - March 31, 1998

 

Taíno: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean
Curated by: Dr. Ricardo Alegría, José Arrom, and Dr. Dicey Taylor
Center, Park and Court Galleries
September 27, 1997 - May 3, 1998

 

The Taíno Legacy
Curated by Fatima Bercht
East Gallery and ProjectWall
September 27, 1997 - January 11, 1998

 

Coaybay: Site of the Afterlife
An Installation by Jorge Crespo
Curated by Fatima Bercht
Contemporánea Gallery
September 27, 1997 - January 11, 1998

 

1996-97

 

Re-Aligning Visions: Alternative Currents in South American Drawing
Curated by Edith A. Gibson and Maria Carmen Ramirez
May 8 - September 7, 1997

 

Diamantina Gonzalez Recurrent Memories
Contemporanea Gallery
May 6- September 7, 1997

 

Alicia Creus The Veiled Mirrors: Recent Works Lyrical textile collages
February 14- April 30, 1997

 

BIO *As in 'biography', 'biology', 'biogenesis'
Curated by Carolina Ponce de Leon.
February 14 - April 30, 1997

 

The Conceptual Trend: Six Artists from Mexico City
Curated by Ruben Gallo and Terence Gower.
February 14- April 30, 1997

 

Nativity Scene
An exhibition from the permanent collection highlighting nativity scenes created in Spain an various
Latin American countries such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, and Brazil.
December 21, 1996 - January 12, 1997

 

Contemporanea: An Installation by Maria Elena Gonzalez
Contemporanea Gallery
December 1, 1996 - April 13, 1997

 

Santos: Sculptures Between Heaven and Earth
A permanent installation of santos selected from the museum's collection
Opened Friday, November 1, 1996

 

Day of the Dead
Celebrating the Mexican holy day
October 31 - November 22, 1996

 

The Liberated Print: The Portfolio in Puerto Rican Graphics
Curated by art historian Teresa Tio
Friday, September 27, 1996 - Sunday, January 12, 1997

 

Antonio Martorell La Casa Letrada
Contemporanea Gallery
Through October 20, 1996

 

1995-96

 

ADAL Out of Focus Nuyoricans
With a Prologue by El Reverendo Pedro Pietri.
August 15 - October 13, 1996

 

Eloy Blanco Pursuits in Painting, 1950 - 1984
A selection of works from El Museo's permanent collection
August 15 - September 8, 1996

 

Ana Busto Working Shoes
The second in El Museo's Contemporanea series
Contemporanea Gallery
June 11 - September 15, 1996

 

Luis Camnitzer AMANAPLANACANALAPANAMA
September 8, 1995 - January 7, 1996

 

Pa'lante
Political Art from the Collection of El Museo del Barrio
September 8, 1995 - January 7, 1996

 

 

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