The Latinx Project at New York University presents two exhibitions at its new 20 Cooper Square location—Re-collections and Histories We Carry—which run February 9 through May 10.
Curated by Caracas-born and Miami-based curator Daniel Arturo Almeida, Re-collections features the work of nine artists: Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, Roxana Barba, Nyssa Chow, Morel Doucet, Estelle Maisonett, Nicole Marroquin, Marisol Ruiz, Kukuli Velarde, and Martín Wannam. Their works collectively explore and contest our relationships to artifacts, monuments, and museum collections. The show marks the Latinx Project’s first exhibition in the new first-floor gallery space at 20 Cooper Square. Almeida notes that “the exhibition echoes an increasing demand for the restitution of looted cultural artifacts and monuments and features artists who transgress entrenched narratives and the methodologies behind their documentation, transcription, and dissemination.”
Histories We Carry features work by Estelle Maisonett, this year’s Latinx Project artist-in-residence, and is curated by Johanna Fernández. The exhibition presents a selection of sculpture, paintings, and assemblages that narrate Maisonett’s upbringing and her connection to place and architecture within the landscape of New York City. As Fernández puts it, “Estelle’s snapshots of everyday life in the Bronx are assembled from discarded fabric, found objects, and industrial detritus. A remix of accumulated articles as varied as found air ducts, a Yankees logo, and stylized urban street wear capture the city’s lost histories, changing cultural terrain, and evolving architectural fabric.”
An opening reception for both shows will be held on Friday, February 9, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and will feature live music and food. To register, please visit the event page.
Both exhibitions, free and open to the public, may be visited at 20 Cooper Square (at E. 5th Street). Re-collections will be on view at the first-floor gallery and open to the public Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Histories We Carry will be on view at the fourth-floor gallery. It will be open to members of the NYU community during regular business hours and to the general public by appointment at [email protected] or by calling (212) 998-7630.
Selected photos for the exhibitions may be downloaded from Google Drive; for high-resolution images, please contact Xavier Robles Armas at xr2078@nyu.edu.
Subways: 6 (Astor Place); R, W (8th Street)
About the Curators
Daniel Arturo Almeida (b. 1992, Caracas, Venezuela) is a cultural producer and transdisciplinary artist working through photography, installation, archiving, and public engagement. Almeida’s practice chronicles intimate and collective stories that shape belief systems and hierarchies of power in the Americas. The product of generational migrations, Almeida researches images, music, anecdotes, and documents portraying nationalism, nostalgia, and collective amnesia. Almeida has exhibited in various institutions including A.I.R. Gallery, the Center for Art, Research, and Alliances, Tiger Strikes Asteroids, Columbia Teachers College, and the SVA Chelsea Galleries. He holds an MFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA in Art and Art History from Florida International University. He currently works between Miami and New York.
Johanna Fernández is the author of The Young Lords: A Radical History (UNC Press, 2020), a history of the Puerto Rican counterpart of the Black Panther Party. She teaches 20th-century US history and the history of social movements. Fernández’s recent research and litigation has unearthed an arsenal of primary documents now available to scholars and members of the public. She directed and co-curated ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York, an exhibition in three NYC museums cited by the New York Times as one of the year’s “Top 10, Best In Art”.
About the Artist-in-Residence
Estelle Maisonett is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Her work is an investigation of how personal and socio-cultural relationships to objects and materials inform preconceived notions of identity. With a practice comprising photography, printmaking, sculpture painting, installation, and video, Maisonett’s life-size collages explore how Latinx identity has historically been composited by fragments of cultures locally and abroad. Maisonett received her MFA in Painting and Printmaking at the Yale School of Art and her BFA from SUNY Purchase College.
About the Latinx Project
NYU’s Latinx Project: Interdisciplinary Center for Arts and Culture explores and promotes U.S. Latinx art, culture and scholarship through creative and interdisciplinary programs that examine and highlight the multitude of Latinx identities. Established in 2018, the Latinx Project has become influential as the first Latinx art and culture focused, interdisciplinary center at an east coast research university. Learn more about the Latinx Project at its website.
