An exhibition, which shows at least a hundred works and opens today to the public in New York, brings together Dominican artists in the diaspora with others who live and work from the Dominican Republic.
“Nexos 2”, which inaugurated the gallery of the Dominican Culture Commissioner until August 29, are projects by 33 teachers from the Faculty of Art of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and twelve others residing in USA, who work in various disciplines.
“The idea is to maintain contact with the Dominican Republic and connect the painters here and there,” the curator and also a painter, Ismael Checo, told Efe that he is participating in the exhibition.
“One of the reasons is to show that there are many painters working here, so they know them,” added Checo, president of the Dominican-American Visual Artists Collective, who said the selection was difficult.
Many of the painters have participated in national and international exhibitions. In “Nexos 2” there are paintings, drawings, installations, collages, photography and sculpture, of format and varied subjects.
Among the painters include the award-winning Amable Sterling, considered one of the great exponents of plastic, and the famous sculptor and painter Vicente Fabre, based in Miami.
The commissioner of Culture and also one of the painters who shows his work, Carlos Sánchez, said that as part of their commitment to the visual arts they do various events every year.
This exhibition “is a way to establish cultural links to strengthen our dominicanidad and to show the public an overview of the current Dominican painting”.
A tour of the Commissioner’s gallery shows the quality of work, colors or darkness, shapes, faces, themes, textures, images, abstract works or figures.
In “Nexos 2” are two works of Sánchez, one of them “From USA to Haiti with Love” that shows black faces and in the bottom, a small door behind which there is a photo of the then republican candidate for the presidency, Donald Trump, and Democrat Hillary Clinton in a handshake. On his clothes, there is a firearm.
“I understand that both represent the establishment and what has happened in Haiti in relation to the US empire is involved and Trump is not exempt because its conception regarding the domination of poor countries is the same,” he told Efe.
Haiti is also present in the hand of Diogenes Abreu and his work “Without Haitianity there is no dominicanidad”, formed by two flags, united by the red color in each one of them.
Juan Tiburcio, dean and professor at the Faculty of Art of the UASD, shows two works, like most artists, and they are faces of bright and indefinite colors, without sex.
One of them watches with uncertainty but has no defined eyes or lips. “It’s an act of reflection, it’s like looking at the future and seeing what’s happening now,” said Tiburcio, who with his second piece pays tribute to Vincent van Gogh.
“It looks like Vincent but it is not him, it is any postmodern spectator and in this case, it is also a skeptical look where with the colors and brushstrokes I pay tribute. Even in my pain works I use a lot of color,” said the artist. Chooses not to name their works.
Virginio Rincón, also of the UASD, is inclined to paint faces of old people and on this occasion presents “Daily reality”, made in pointillism on paper, in which wrinkles and marks of old age seem palpable, as well as a portrait of his Mother, who died 3 years ago, and who encouraged him to study art.
The photos also stand out in the exhibition and some, such as those of Augusto Valdivia or Maximiliano Medina, show the stark reality of poverty in his country.
Among the women include Liubov Balanutsa, Arelis Subero and Miriam Bello, also a dancer, co-founder of the National Classical Ballet and writer.
“Nexos 2” will also have four masterful lectures, “Let’s Talk about Art”.
