State of the Art: Your Weekly Guide to NYC's Latino Art

Twitter: @labarbaraaa

State of The Art is Remezcla’s weekly guide to Latin art openings in your city each week. Mingle with art admirers, collectors and casual passersby to check out these new works. And don’t forget to grab a free glass of wine…or three.

Los Muros Hablan

The events for Los Muros Hablan, an urban art festival in Spanish Harlem, kick off this Monday with 11 artists creating murals that put a personal portrayal on the idea of diaspora. Mural sites are located at various spots between 100th and 111th streets in Spanish Harlem, while another site is located in the South Bronx under the Grand Concourse freeway by 138th street. You can access a map of the mural sites here. Work on the murals will continue Monday through Saturday, each day until sundown. Viewing of the process and preliminary work is encouraged as part of the event aims to engage the community and break down barriers between artistic processes and the public. The artists themselves will speak about their work on Wednesday, August 21st, at 7:30pm at Museo del Barrio. And Saturday, in a climactic finale, Los Muros Hablan will host a block party on 105th street from 1 to 8pm and a party, complete with musical performances by Flaco Navaja and the Razor Blades, DJ Velcro, D’Marquesina, and others at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center from 5pm to 2am. Sounds like your week is planned to me.

Artists Talks @Museo Gabriela Salazar on Social Architecture

Gabriela Salazar, an exhibiting artist in Museo del Barrio’s Bienal 2013, is giving a talk on Social Architecture this Wednesday at 6:30pm. Her work involves a variety of objects that attempt to make evident and comment on manufactured architecture, the natural and synthetic movement of space, and how it affects our reality. Her talk will be a great precursor and segue to the talks by urban and street artists involved in Los Muros Hablan. Museo del Barrio is where it’s at this Wednesday!

Grabados de José Guadalupe Posada

José Guadalupe Posada is a household name in Mexico. He was the popularizer of the image of la calavera, the skeleton that lampooned the rich bourgeoise class of pre-Revolutionary Mexico. He’s an art historical celebrity and hero to many contemporary Latin American artists, particularly those who share his medium of printmaking. Through his work as a political cartoonist creating pennypress engravings, he ridiculed and satirized the regime of Porfirio Diaz, a controversial and unpopular dictator. A selection of Posada’s infamous grabados, or engravings, are in New York at the Galeria Octavio Paz only through September, so take a peek at a Latin American artistic giant who influenced not only art but history.