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

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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.

Radical Presence : Black Performance in Contemporary Art

One of the more innovative survey exhibits to be shown this year highlight the work of black performance artists from the 1960s to the present. The show ‘Radical Presence’ focuses on an array of iconic artists creating acts that confront their audience tp curiosity. Topics of the performances touch on war, race, beauty, feminism and all things highly relevant to people of color. In the show is Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco whose work has highlighted race and the “othering” of native peoples with her performance piece ‘Couple in a Cage.’ Also in the show is Papo Colo from Santurce, Puerto Rico. Colo helped found the alternative art space Exit Art, which provided a platform and exhibiting space for many Latino artists. Other big art world figures in the show are Adrian Piper, Carrie Mae Weems and internet sensation Hennesy Youngman, creator of Art Thoughtz and a performance art comedian of sorts. The show runs from September 10th through December 7th, and will host a variety of live performances and artists’ talks in addition to the exhibit.

Chaordica: Oscar de las Flores

His name might be beautiful but his drawings are no garden of earthly delights. The graphite grey works on paper are a mesmerizing discord of troll-like figures, humans with disgusting textures to their bodies. Movement and painstaking detail occupy every millimeter of the page. After seeking asylum in Guadalajara, Mexico with his family as a child while the horrors of the civil war raged in his birthplace of El Salvador, de las Flores became enamored with Mexican muralist Jose Clemente Orozco. And you can see Orozco’s influence in the circling movements and crammed treatment of the figures in his drawings. You will be able to see the work of this self-taught artist at Mulherin + Pollard until September 29th.

Angel Otero: Gates of Horn and Ivory

Another artist from Santurce, Puerto Rico, Angel Otero, has his second solo show at Lehmann Maupin gallery in Chelsea exhibiting porcelain and steel sculptures as well as non-traditional abstract “paintings” or what he calls “oil skins.” Otero has an interesting technique in creating these “paintings.” He treats paint as a 3D material creating layers upon layers of oil paint on a sheet of glass. He then peels off the mass of layered paint from the glass like a beautiful bandaid being artfully tugged away from the skin. His art process is described as a reference to memories and memory-making. There will be an opening reception aka “wine party” on September 12th from 6 to 8 pm. Los recuerdos están esperando. Cheers!