El Museo del Barrio

October 10, 2021November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

Simonette Quamina – Canboulay at Smack Mellon

Featured Artist

The artist and her work, photo courtesy of Camille Thomas

Canboulay, Simonette Quamina’s solo exhibition at Smack Mellon, features a series of immersive wall-sized visual horizons which borrow the methodological framework of a caesura, a break in a poem. The notion of “break” exists within each work through cuts and rips as well as overall, separating elements of her continuous visual story into vignettes of individual works. Through her use of sophisticated variety of collage and printmaking techniques, Quamina integrates narratives referencing histories such as socioeconomic ramifications of sugarcane and familial subjugation, into complex, dark surfaces.

June 21, 2021July 22, 2021, by Etty Yaniv

Vick Quezada: Interconnected Matter

Artist photographed with their work, *Tabled Remains,* 2018. Currently on view at El Museo del Barrio. Photograph by Jill Richards

Vick Quezada (they/them) is an Indigenous-Latinx artist, they queer the archaeological through hybrid forms and aesthetics. Inspired by the guiding principles of Aztec Philosophy, Quezada integrates the theory of interconnected matter and how it’s embedded in the cosmos, planet earth, ecology, and all lifeforms. These elements of matter cannot be governed by sovereign powers as they are inherently queer and infinte. Quezada activates these themes and histories through their work, and this is conveyed by way of digital photography, video, performance and sculpture.

April 7, 2021April 12, 2021, by Etty Yaniv

Jessica Lagunas: With Every Fiber at Pelham Art Center

The artist and “Por siempre joven” (Forever Young) Series. Installation at the Bronx Museum’s The Block Gallery, 2019. Photo courtesy Argenis Apolinario/The Bronx Museum of the Arts

Jessica Lagunas is Interested in working with unconventional materials—makeup, hair, perfume, organic materials—through video-performance, installation, drawing, prints, artist books, embroidery, and recently, weaving. She is a New York City-based Latinx artist, whose group exhibitions include El Museo del Barrio’s The (S) Files Biennial, The Bronx Museum of the Arts’ Artist in the Marketplace, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA at Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara and Laxart, among others.

March 17, 2021July 22, 2021, by Etty Yaniv

Public Events in all Five Boroughs

Local Artists and Cultural Organizations in Each Borough to Host Outdoor, Socially Distanced Press Conferences with Performances March 18-19

FreeDa Banana leading an outdoor dance class during LEIMAY Block Party. Image courtesy LEIMAY.
Image Credit: Shige Moriya

One year after New York City’s arts and cultural sector suddenly shut down over the period of one week in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, events in each borough will mark the somber anniversary. Comprised of speeches by local elected/cultural leaders and performances by New York artists, this day of programming memorializes the shut down while looking forward to the needs of a resilient NY artistic community. The events are united by the dual themes of #CultureRemembers and #CultureForward, and will take place on Thursday, March 18, and Friday, March 19. Local leaders and artists will participate in all of them.