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Photo: Jo Cosme
JUNE 7 - JUNE 18, 2023
Julia de Burgos Performance and Arts Center
1680 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10029
Sortarie
Stephanie Silva
Stephanie Silva Santana is a queer multidisciplinary artist from Puerto Rico. She has a Bachelors in Comparative Literature and a minor in Art History, started in the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus, and finished in the San Juan campus. She has been part of collective expositions in Puerto Rico, Seattle, and New York. Her interests vary from reading, photography and storytelling and tries to combine these aspects in her art.
Jo Cosme
Jo Cosme is a queer Puerto Rican photographer and multimedia artist who was displaced to Seattle a year after Hurricane María in 2018. Here, she was shocked by how little North Americans know about Borikén (colonially known as Puerto Rico), which inspired her to create works that provoke reflections on the effects of disaster capitalism and neocolonialism in her Homeland. Cosme completed her BFA at Puerto Rico's School of Fine Arts. Her work’s been exhibited in places such as Museo las Américas (PR), Photographic Center Northwest (WA), and Galerie Rivoli 59 (Paris). By 2022, she finished MASS MoCA's A4A Residency and started working on her first solo show titled: “Welcome to Paradise” an immersive installation exploring the contrasting relationship between United Statesians’ perception of Puerto Rico as a Caribbean paradise compared to what its Native population has endured for generations.
Natalia Bosques Chico
Natalia Bosques Chico has a BA in Painting and Graphic Arts from her hometown’s Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto de San Germán. Her artwork is figurative, and her preferred medium is acrylic paint. She has been living in Seattle, Washington, since 2017 when she was displaced with her partner after Hurricane María.
Hope will never be silent!
Puerto Rican artist Seil Roman developed and recorded this project titled, “Hope will never be silent,” in honor of the struggles by LGBT+ people. Harvey Milk made famous this phrase during one of his speeches. “The Spirit of Him and all of those who have been in the fight add their energies to the movement and continue to inspire all of us,” Seil Roman. The ashes portrayed reflect the diversity of the movement and each particle together represents the whole. The energies portrayed in the video performance inspire reflection about the movement towards social justice and equal human rights for all. Hope is alive, when we recognize Equity, Freedom & Equality.
Seil Román
Seil Román (Arecibo, Puerto Rico, 1984) Mr Roman works as the Director of Mental Health Services of Waves Ahead Puerto Rico, a non-for-profit organization in Puerto Rico that focuses on the LGBT Older Adults. He balances his passion for art with his work instituting creative art therapy in his sessions. He graduated with a Bachelor of Art from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico with a concentration of Painting in 2009. He earned in 2008, a scholarship from the ARCO Foundation to study art in Spain; and is known for his installation in Old San Juan, 2014, titled, “Esto no es una plaza (This is not a public space).” He has showcased his art works in collective exhibits at: Escuela de Artes Plasticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico, Museo de las Americas, Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts & Gallery W. Labiosa, among others.
Joto
Chacon explore how Mexico’s culture of machismo often leads to violence, by exploring what it means to be a man and social pressure.
“Joto” was a term used to describe cross-dressing call girls. The word translates to “faggot”.
José Chacón
He / Him / His
First Generation Mexican-American and Proud Homosexual
Conceptual Artist specializing in Mexican, LGBTQIA+, Fashion and Crime Subcultures
Jose graduated from the Apparel Design program at Seattle Central in 2010, working as an Art Director in the Menswear and Fitness industry, before transitioning into Design and Marketing for CPG companies. His latest personal project, Chacon, shines a light on Mexico’s underworld and the political climate.
IG @CHACON_NYC