The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz announces “Dos Mundos: (Re)Constructing Narratives,” presenting the photographs of 12 artists who are recipients of Photography Fellowships from En Foco, the non-profit founded in 1974 that supports contemporary photographers of African, Asian, Latino, Native American and Pacific Islander heritage.
The exhibition will be on view from Sept. 12 – Nov. 22 in The Dorsky’s Sara Bedrick Gallery. It is guest curated by Juanita Lanzo and Stephanie A. Lindquist in partnership with En Foco, Inc.
As previously announced, the Dorsky Museum will reopen this fall with a full slate of exhibitions, capacity limits and requirements that visitors and staff wear masks and maintain six feet of social distance at all times. More details including hours of operation will be forthcoming.
About the Exhibition
“Dos Mundos: (Re)constructing Narratives” features 12 artists who center stories at the fringe of public attention: hidden sanctuaries, subcultures, painful identities, far-away homes, spirituality, transcendence, broken promises, and all too easily ignored social ecologies.
Nearly 50 years after Puerto Rican photographers created the first “Dos Mundos” exhibition in a New York art scene that did not represent them, En Foco’s fellowship recipients continue the work of offering fresh visions that contest mainstream perspectives.
Evolving to contemporary circumstances and inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, they maintain their commitments to their communities and individual photographic processes, and demonstrate leadership by nurturing other artists of color across the diaspora and beyond.
Cinthya Santos Briones’ work transports us to those “Living in Sanctuary,” in churches in New York and New Mexico, sheltering them from the continued threat of deportation and separation from their families.
Welcoming us to the Bronx’s underground Hip-Hop scene, Danny Peralta introduces us to his collaborators at Guerrilla Grooves Radio station in “The Best Damn Rap.”
Damarys Alvarez offers us a rare glimpse of subversive youth “Punks” in communist Cuba.
Combining his search for Black art with formal considerations of light, line, shape and form, Aaron Turner uses diverse strategies in his film photography series “Black Alchemy,” including installation, digital manipulation and drawing.
Antonio Pulgarin presents us with visually layered family photographs that navigate the boundary between masculine constructions and queer realities.
Known for his portraits from Harlem and Latin America, Tau Battice displays communal pride and integrity in his series from his home, “Liamuiga,” the indigenous name of St. Kitts.
Documentary photographer Laylah Amatullah Barrayn focuses our sight on Black and Muslim women confidently unveiling their spirit, gathered during her frequent travels from Senegal to Brooklyn.
In the intimate series “Umbral,” Erika Morillo exposes her sole son’s negotiation of fantasy and reality between this world and another.
Daesha Harris submerges our view below water following Black feet in their journey to freedom.
In the face of growing social divides, Roger Richardson delicately holds together tender moments in his series “Let Me So Love.”
With clarity, Yu-Chen Chiu exposes a broken political system and American dream under the Trump administration.
Through iconic empty space around the Coney Island Housing Projects, Anthony Hamboussi links together stories of urban relationships to the local environment and disparate understandings of safety in a complicated web of social ecology.
Together these artists are working to decolonize the photographic image, exposing structures of oppression, queering their subjects’ identities and refusals within them, and celebrating their kin’s freedom and love.
About Guest Curator Juanita Lanzo
Lanzo has worked in the Bronx for more than 20 years as a visual artist, arts administrator, curator, archivist and art adviser. Her curatorial projects focus on emerging artists of color, the LGBTQ+ community, women, race, immigration and popular culture in a wide array of media. She supplements these with public programs and professional development and sustainable advocacy and career practices for visual artists.
Lanzo currently works as an Independent Curator for En Foco, and as a teaching artist in New York. She holds an MFA in painting & printmaking from City College of New York and a BFA from the University of Puerto Rico. Lanzo was born in Puerto Rico, works and teaches in the Bronx and lives in East Harlem, New York.
About Guest Curator Stephanie A. Lindquist
Lindquist is an artist, curator and former Director of BronxArtSpace. As an arts administrator she advocates for often-overlooked artists from the Bronx and communities of color across gender and sexual expressions, namely through BronxArtSpace’s offsite residency program and open call for local curators.
Her current artwork is inspired by historical and botanical research of indigenous food plants from around the world, and takes the form of photography, collage, prints and video. She has exhibited at Google, the New York Public Library, the Allen Hospital, the Bronx Museum, El Museo del Barrio, Smack Mellon, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, The New Museum, San Diego Art Institute and the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.
About En Foco, Inc.
En Foco, Inc., is a non-profit that supports contemporary primarily U.S.-based photographers of African, Asian, Latino, Native American and Pacific Islander heritage. Founded in 1974, En Foco makes their work visible to the art world, yet remains accessible to under-serviced communities. Through exhibitions, workshops, events and publications, it provides professional recognition, honoraria and assistance to photographers as they grow into different stages of their careers
About The Dorsky Museum
Through its collections, exhibitions and public programs, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art supports and enriches the academic programs at the College and serves as a center for Hudson Valley arts and culture. With more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries, The Dorsky Museum is one of the largest museums in the SUNY system. Since its official dedication in 2001, The Dorsky has presented more than 100 exhibitions, including commissions, collection-based projects, and in-depth studies of contemporary artists including Robert Morris, Alice Neel, Judy Pfaff, Carolee Schneemann and Ushio Shinohara.
