calendario eventi  :: 

X

30/4/2004

None of the above

Real Art Ways, Hartford

Contemporary Work By Puerto Rican Artists

Manuel Acevedo, Allora & Calzadilla, Javier Cambre, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Dzine, Cari Gonzalez-Casanova, Ivelisse Jiménez, Charles Juhász-Alvarado, Ignacio Lang, Malika, Arnaldo Morales, Bea Santiago Muñoz, Enoc Perez, Carlos Rivera, Chemi Rosado Seijo

Overview:
NONE OF THE ABOVE: Contemporary Work by Puerto Rican Artists proposes a new way of seeing and thinking about Puerto Rican art, re-shaping the standard curatorial frameworks that have tended to privilege nationalism, identity politics and/or geography in their treatment of Puerto Rican contemporary art.

This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue identify a strong critical and aesthetic strain within contemporary Puerto Rican art practice that is best described as a kind of Neo-Conceptualism, interacting with and responding to a wide array of global concerns and interests, broad topics such as gender, consumerism, world history, film and literature. While the works negotiate location, politics, and identity on certain levels, these are not primary topics. The artists in None of the Above are somewhat distinct from artists who have been popularly selected to represent Puerto Rico – and whose agendas are decidedly more personal or nationalistic explorations of identity, including well-known artists such as Antonio Martorell, Pepón Osorio and Juan Sánchez. One of the premises of this project is that despite conceptual art, minimal art, interactions and performative "body" art (among others) having been pioneered since the 1960s by Puerto Rican artists of the period, these contributions have been under recognized due to the overriding problematic of Puerto Rico's – and Puerto Ricans' – status.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Frances Negron Muntaner's forthcoming book of the same name. Politically, Puerto Rico is considered an "Estado Libre Associado," literally, a "free associated state," or a commonwealth, of the United States. While its residents carry U.S. passports, are locally autonomous and receive Federal benefits, they are unable to vote in U.S. Presidential elections. A plebiscite held on December 13, 1998 in Puerto Rico asked the 71.3% who turned out their opinion on the geopolitical position of the Island. While 46.5% opted for statehood, only 2.5% chose independence, and even less (0.4%) wished to maintain the status of territorial commonwealth – the so-called "Free Association." Interestingly, a majority of votes (50.3%) were cast for "none of the above," perhaps in a bid to reject political machinations and either-or polarities, and to bring the question to a new way of conceiving status.

While the exhibition is not an historical survey, a critical catalogue will address to some degree will the antecedents of current practice by looking at the earlier practices of artists such as Rafael Moñtanez Ortiz, Carlos Irizarry, Rafael Ferrer, Papo Colo, Nestor Otero, Felix Gonzalez Torres, Edin Velez and others.

NONE OF THE ABOVE will travel to El Museo del Arte del Puerto Rico from January 22 - April 17, 2005.

To order the catalogue for NONE OF THE ABOVE, email visualarts@realartways.org or mail a note of request to NOTA Catalogue, c/o Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St, Hartford, CT 06106.
________

The Artists

Manuel Acevedo, Allora & Calzadilla, Javier Cambre, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Dzine, Cari Gonzalez-Casanova, Ivelisse Jiménez, Charles Juhász-Alvarado, Ignacio Lang, Malika, Arnaldo Morales, Bea Santiago Muñoz, Enoc Perez, Carlos Rivera, Chemi Rosado Seijo

The Curators

Deborah Cullen has served as Curator of El Museo del Barrio, in New York, since 1999. During that time she initiated El Museo's Bienal: The S-Files/The Selected Files, a showcase of NYC Latino artists, and curated Here & There/Aquí y Allá: Six Artists from San Juan, which traveled to the University of Houston's Blaffer Art Gallery, and Voces y Visiones: Highlights from El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection, among other exhibitions. Prior to working with El Museo del Barrio, Cullen was Project Director and Curator at The Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Print Collection in New York. She is the recipient of Faith Ringgold's Anyone Can Fly Foundation Curatorial Award and the J. Paul Getty Curatorial Research Fellowship.

Silvia Karman Cubiñá is currently the Director of the Moore Space in Miami and an independent curator. Among the projects she has co-curated at the Moore Space are an exhibition of work by Yang Fudong and Jim Lambie, and Interplay. From 2001-2003, Cubiñá was Adjunct Curator of Institute of Visual Arts (inova) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has curated exhibitions for many spaces in the continental United States and Puerto Rico, including The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, the Museo de las Américas, the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, and the Museo de San Juan; and multiple project room at ARCO and ArtMiami. In 2000, she was Curator and Project Director for Pepón Osorio's Door to Door, a collaborative multi-site exhibition project.

Steven Holmes has served as Director of Visual Arts at Real Art Ways since June 2000. Among his curatorial projects for Real Art Ways have included Container (including work by Micah Lexier and Colleen Wolstenholme), This Is Then (including work by the Atlas Group), Electronic Models and Acquiring Taste (including work by Mel Bochner, Tolland Grinnell, Panamarenko, Sally Mann and Hanne Darboven). He was a founding member of The Khyber Arts Society in Halifax, Canada, an internationally recognized multi-disciplinary arts center, has published in the areas of critical theory and art criticism (Rewire, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, MAIN), and has spent almost a decade in education as an instructor of visual arts at numerous colleges, including the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

May 1 – October 3, 2004 at Real Art Ways

Opening Saturday, May 1, 6-9pm // All are welcome. Admission is free.

**Sneak preview with artists and curators Friday, April 30, 7pm**
_________

Real Room

A series of exhibitions featuring Puerto Rican artists will run concurrently with NONE OF THE ABOVE in the Real Room.

Miguel Trelles
Wednesday, April 28 – Sunday, May 16
Opening with NOTA on Saturday, May 1, 6-9pm

Ana Rosa Rivera Marrero
Thursday, May 20 – Sunday, June 13
Opening Thursday, May 20, 6-8pm (artist talk at 5pm)

Christian Curiel
Thursday, June 17 – Sunday, July 11
Opening Thursday, June 17, 6-8pm (artist talk at 5pm)

Miguel Luciano
Thursday, July 15 – Monday, September 6
Opening Thursday, July 15, 6-8pm (artist talk at 5pm)

Pablo Delano
Wednesday, September 8 – Sunday, October 17
Reception Thursday, September 16, 6-8pm (artist talk at 5pm)
________

Live Arts

Glaisma Pérez-Silva: De lo Erótico a lo Étnico
Saturday, May 8, 8pm

Papo Vazquez Pirates Troubadors
Saturday, June 5, 8pm

Real Art Ways - 56 Arbor St - Hartford CT 06106 - 860.232.1006

stampa

permanent link