Latin Art in NYC

Arts & Entertainment

by Remezcla staff, 03/09/2010

 
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After causing a splash in the art world and in New York City, the huge Gabriel Orozco solo show at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has come to a close. The highly publicized exhibition was the first time a Mexican artist had a solo show at the MoMA in more than 70 years, but there’s so much more Latin art to see in galleries and museums around the City—including new shows that just opened or will open soon. Here are some of our favorites, from obscure, up-and-coming artists to established icons like Pablo Picasso.

Priscila de Carvalho at Praxis Art
Through March 20
This Brazilian artist is thinking about social politics in this colorful and eye-popping new show. Lime green, the sun and moon together with unthinkable situations reflect the surrealism Priscila is so fond of (Salvador Dalí and Wassily Kandinsky are influences). The speed and chaotic urban landscapes of Rio, Sao Paolo and her adopted New York City are intertwined with beaming colors and multiple surfaces.

Carnival dancers stand in front of a war tank as if ready to overpower it by shaking their hips. Black and white guns drop from the sky, and boats and planes are all around. Some of the paintings come out of the canvas, and, while very entertaining to stare at, also talk about expansion, limits and authority. Her message and technique combined give us something not only appealing to the eye, but also to the mind.

Fortoul Presents at The Dash Gallery
Through March 20
Last December, Colombian-American brothers Gabriel and Isaac Fortoul knocked on hip-hop impresario Damon Dash’s door and presented him with the idea for an exhibition at his new gallery space. The brothers, curator Gabriel and visual artist Isaac, had recently returned to New York after a few years in Phoenix. Less than two months later, the show is here.

Although it doesn’t have a title or specific theme because it was put together so quickly, according to Gabriel, he is always looking for artwork that reflects the urban experience, specifically the fusion between metropolitan culture and one’s roots. Phoenix-based Latino artists Bobby Castaneda and Hector Ruiz, plus Isaac, featured in the gallery’s inaugural show, enhance each other with their Mexican-American and Colombian-American experiences.

Ernesto Neto at MoMA
Through April 5
Celebrated Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto creates soft sculptures that break the cardinal rule of most museums: do not touch! This stand-alone installation that was acquired by MoMA three years ago is now on view for the first time on the fourth floor.

Just like the series of works Neto has been doing since the '90s, in Navedenga the viewer is asked to enter the translucent hollow chamber of its structure and engage in a multi-sensory experience. This porous, womb-like white cell ("nave" means "ship" or "vessel" in Portuguese) explores ideas of feminine and masculine, nature and architecture.

Phantom Sightings at El Museo del Barrio
March 24–May 9
The exhibition Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement comes to New York, ending a tour that began at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in September 2008 and then traveled through Mexico and the Southwest. More than 100 works, from installation to performance, by 27 artists will be on view.

Phantom Sightings is the largest show of contemporary Chicano art assembled to date and focuses on conceptual art from the mid-'90s to the present. However, the show also includes key Chicano artists such as the '70s Chicano collective ASCO, whose members included GRONK and Patssi Valdez. The group would collectively and individually "sign" their names on buildings and other symbolic objects in the way a graffiti artist would, as an "affirmation" and "claiming of" the space.

Pablo Picasso at MoMA
March 28–September 6
MoMA's going old-school with Picasso: Themes and Variations, an exhibition featuring approximately 100 prints by the great art icon. Consider this exhibition a Behind the Music–type of journey that explores Picasso’s inner process through printmaking and his experimentation in etching, lithography and linoleum cut.

And for those who are intrigued by Picasso, the lover of women, there will be plenty of studies of the female body. According to the museum's press release, it hopes these prints reveal how women became such a "catalytic force behind his creativity." The lines will be long for this one, amigos!

For the complete list of where to find Latin art in the City, visit Remezcla.com.

 

related venues/(4)

  1. 1
    The Dash Gallery
    172 Duane St
    Manhattan – TriBeCa
    NY 10013
  2. 2
    Praxis Art
    25 E 73rd St
    Manhattan – Upper East Side
    NY 10021
  3. 3
    El Museo del Barrio
    1230 Fifth Ave.
    Manhattan – El Barrio/Spanish Harlem
    NY 10029
  1. 4
    The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA
    11 W. 53rd St.
    Manhattan – Midtown West
    NY 10019

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