State of the Art NYC: This Week in Latino Art
Image: Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão
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.
Entre Fronteras: An Architectural Intervention
A gallery at Queens Museum is on its way to being reconstructed into an interior courtyard reminiscent of the architecture in old buildings in Havana. Cuban architects Yoandy Rizo Fiallo and Osmany Abel García Fuentes will use reused, repurposed materials to convert the gallery space into an immigrants’ rights thinktank where Cuban culture and history can be explored and discussed amid the larger ideas surrounding migration and diaspora. The project is a collaboration with Queens Museum and Immigrant Movement International– a community space in Corona, Queens that provides a venue for projects involving arte útil and the advancement of society at large. The opening reception is Saturday, April 26th from to 8pm.
Adriana Varejão: Polvo
The construction of race, mestizaje and miscegenation is explored in a super interesting show by Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão. The show was inspired by a government survey that asked Brazilians to describe their race, which resulted in over 136 beautifully assembled metaphorical descriptions such as Sapecada (Flirting with Freckles), Café com Leite (Milky Coffee), Burro quando Foge (Faded Fawn) and Queimada de Sol (Sun Kissed). She then creates paintings that realize these poetic characterizations. Polvo, the name of the exhibit, means Octopus in Portuguese, an animal whose ink is composed of mainly melanin– the pigment that creates the variations in our skin tones. The show opens Thursday, April 24th and will be up until June 21st.
Alice Schivardi at Museo de los Sures
Museo de los Sures, an organization in South Williamsburg that aims to preserve the varied culture of a neighborhood that has experienced excessive gentrification and displacement of communities over the last decade, is having an exhibit with photographer Alice Schivardi. Schivardi creates portraits of families where she inserts herself into the photograph with help from the family on how to fit in stylistically. Part of her work also involves gifting the family with portraits without her presence. Museo de los Sures seems like a good venue to support. Drop by the opening this Tuesday from April 22nd from 6 to 9pm.