The Delaware Art Museum presents “Hispanic Lives, Latin Worlds †Simple Complexities (Vidas Hispanas, Mundos Latinos †Simplicidad y Complejidad),” an exhibition featuring more than 25 works of art by Hispanic artists, on view till October 12.
While the artists live primarily in the mid-Atlantic region, their ancestry ranges throughout the Latin American countries, including Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Cuba and Guatemala, as well as Spain. This exhibition is timed to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 to October 15.
The imagery in the exhibition’s prints, paintings, photographs, mixed media works and installations capture ideas and feelings of universal importance, but especially meaningful to Latin Americans today. Included are references to ancient civilizations, nature, spirituality and the immigration experience.
Rather than centering on one subject or style, “Hispanic Lives” reveals the diversity of Latin American culture by presenting juxtapositions both subtle and easily apparent †young and old, traditional and modern, rural and urban, suffering and triumph. Simplicity and complexity are drawn together and apart, unified by the Spanish language.
The varying colors of four walls and four small panels in the exhibition reflect a project titled “Me by Others, Others by Me,” created by Peruvian artist Elena Patiño. She met with 20 individuals for one-on-one sessions in which she and the participant sought to capture their respective perceptions of their own, and each other’s, skin tones by mixing paint.
These skin tones were then painted onto a set of panels. In the exhibition, the gallery’s four wall colors reflect such a set. Four panels are on view, each displayed on a wall of a different color, creating another conceptual and artistic juxtaposition in a visual dialogue about skin color.
“Hispanic Lives, Latin Worlds †Simple Complexities” is part of the museum’s Outlooks Exhibition Series, which features exhibitions created by regional organizations, individuals and community groups that are then hosted by the museum. This exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Governor’s Council on Hispanic Affairs. The guest curator is Riccardo Stoeckicht, vice president of operations at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware.
The Delaware Art Museum is at 2301 Kentmere Parkway. For more information, www.delart.org . 302-571-9590 or 866-232-3714.
