Identidad y Libertad
Detail of “Segura” series by Claudia Bernardi
“Art is always changing and always possible. Even if the images are sad, the creative process is a remarkable opportunity.”
Enjoy a virtual tour of "Identidad y Libertad", on exhibition at the R2 Gallery from June 4-24, 2021.
Carbondale Arts presented “Identidad y Libertad”, a group exhibition curated by Gayle Embrey and Vanessa Porras at the Carbondale Arts R2 Gallery. “Identidad y Libertad” was on exhibition June 4 - 24, 2021. The public was invited to an outdoor artist talk on Friday, June 4 beginning at 5:30pm.
“Identidad y Libertad” explored the issues around identity and freedom for those who are Spanish-speaking immigrants as well as those who are born in the United States yet are presumed, because of their heritage, to be undocumented immigrants. Featured artists included Claudia Bernardi, Tony Ortega (Denver, CO), Fanel Reyes (Oaxaca, MX), and José Lopez (Mexico City, MX). Joined by youth immigrant detainee muralists, each of these artists examined the questions that arise around identity and what it means to be free. Their works told the stories of the varied experiences of Latinx people in this country and of those south of the border.
This exhibition was generously sponsored by Binbilla Landscaping, Inc., based in the Roaring Fork Valley. Thank you!
Hear from the co-curators of this exhibition (Gayle Embrey and Vanessa Porras), as well as artists Tony Ortega (Denver) and Armando Silva (Greeley).
Disfruta escuchando a la co-curadora de esta exposición, Vanessa Porras, así como de los artistas Fanel Reyes (Oaxaca, MX), Claudia Bernardi, Tony Ortega (Denver) y Armando Silva (Greeley).
Claudia Bernardi, painter and mixed media artist
Claudia Bernardi is an internationally known artist who works in the fields of art, human rights and social justice. In her work over the past two decades, she has combined installation, sculpture, painting and printmaking. Additionally, she has focused her art praxis in developing and facilitating community and collaborative art projects working with/ and in collaboration with communities that have suffered state terror, violence, forced exiles and who are victims of human rights violations.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bernardi lived through the Argentine military junta that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. Emerging from this experience, Bernardi recognized that art could be used to educate, elucidate, and articulate the communal memories of survivors of human rights atrocities.
Bernardi is the founder and director of the School of Art and Open Studio of Perquin El Salvador, serving children, youth, adults and the elderly. For the last five years, Bernardi has been working with unaccompanied, undocumented, Central American migrant minors, currently detained in maximum security facilities in the United States.
Bernardi is Professor of Community Arts, Diversity Studies, Critical Studies and has taught in the Graduate Program of Visual and Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts.
Tony Ortega, printmaker, Denver, CO
Tony Ortega holds an MFA in drawing and painting from the University of Colorado and is currently a professor for Regis University. In 2018 he was the Regis College faculty lecture of the year. He was the recipient of the coveted Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts (1999) and the Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts (1998). He has been a working artist and teacher for the past 39 years. Tony Ortega’s lifelong goal is to contribute to a better understanding of cultural diversity by addressing the culture, history and experiences of Chicanos/Latinos through his art. His work can be found in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum and the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center. He has exhibited extensively in United States, Latin America and other parts of the world. Tony’s artwork can be found in Denver, Colorado at the William Havu Gallery.
For more information on his artwork, please visit his web site at: www.tonyortega.net
Fanel Reyes, ceramicist, Oaxaca, Mexico
I was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. My family is from the coast of the state and I grew up surrounded by food made from corn in clay pots and tortillas made on a comal. I am the first generation to be born and grow up in the city, but I always loved my whole life around rural work. Something very important in my life is my roots and my identity.
When I finished university I became independent and I was working in an advertising agency in Mexico City but despite enjoying it, I longed for Oaxaca. After three years, I went back and started working with the clay. My education in ceramics was not formal at all, I took a small workshop (for children!) In the House of Culture of the City at the age of 25 and from there I took a little bit of clay home to start practicing.
The rest I have learned by watching and living with traditional potters. In Oaxaca there are about 70 pottery communities from the coast to the mountains and that is the type of knowledge that interests me: that which is inherited from one potter to another.
The potters taught me that it is not necessary to have a large workshop, many specialized tools and professional kilns. My hands and a small space to make an open burning are enough. Eventually my clay work has been progressing slowly. My next apprenticeship will be making utilitarian pieces. My maxim is: think of everything that I would like to exist and do it with my hands. The latter also applies to the illustrations and engravings that I make for myself or as part of commissions from clients and friends.
IG @fannnel
WEBSITE fanelreyes.com
José Luis Lopez, printmaker, Mexico City, Mexico
After studying Communication and Journalism at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), he ventured into a photographic project that changed his life: recording cultural contamination in the Lacandon Jungle. This adventure led him for the first time to what would become his second home: San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. At this stage he did Public Radio and wrote for local media, quickly integrating into the San Cristobal cultural wave.
He returned to Mexico City to work as a bank clerk and was then able to return with some resources to the Chiapas city where he would live for 15 years, exploring, through his own business, the wonderful world of mezcal. A universe that introduced him to places and incredible people who prompted the need to begin his graphic work, debuting in the mezcal label "Los Amorosos" that remains in the memory and mezcal culture of the city.
Nowadays, José is based between Mexico City, Torreón and San Cristóbal, his graphic work continues to evolve within personal folders among which stand out the #mexicana herbolaria, # Oficiosenextinción and of course the #graficamezcalera where symbolism, flora, fauna converge and the various characters from the fantastic world of rural Mexico and their spirits, among which the wisdom of mezcal stands out.