Organized By
Carlos Ayala Barreto

Curated By:
Emilia Barrientos

Project Title
New Perspectives on Art in Puerto Rico

Start Date
September 30, 2024

End Date
October 30, 2024

Opening Reception Date
October 5, 2024

This exhibition breaks away from the traditional forms of Puerto Rican art and also focuses on representing artists from different artistic currents. The visual arts in any society are expressions of the aspirations, feelings, and realities of the society in which they are created. Artists, as individuals with the ability and talent to manipulate visual mediums such as painting, drawing, sculpture, engraving, and photography, create works to communicate ideas, feelings, and values with the intention that the viewer understands those messages in the artwork. It is for this reason that in their practice and development, artistic forms align with the particular aesthetic sense of the audience receiving the work.
Puerto Rican visual art is one of the most significant and defining expressions of our culture. Customs, the relationship with nature, ethical sense, political and religious ideas, and the vision of history as a people are some of the manifestations that we have seen in visual art throughout time. National reality, with its peculiarities and accents, occurs in the context of a highly complex society, both historically, politically,
socially, and economically. The artistic community is witness to and participant in this reality, while art expresses the vision of the environment of the individuals who compose the society. For generations, we have heard the phrase (el que vive del arte, muere de hambre”, “el echar Pa’lante”) “those who live off art, die of hunger,” “you have to forge ahead,” and we grow up with the idea that dedicating ourselves to it is not an option. Many keep their skills and emotions under a desk or within a notebook, unaware that one of those works could become a great world exponent.