FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / Thursday, February 26, 2004

Press Contact:860.232.1006, info@realartways.org

REAL ART WAYS ANNOUNCES ARTISTS FEATURED IN
NONE OF THE ABOVE: CONTEMPORARY WORK BY PUERTO RICAN ARTISTS

May 1 – September 19, 2004
Opening Saturday, May 1, 6-9PM in the Main Gallery

Hartford, CT — Real Art Ways is pleased to announce the 16 artists selected to participate in NONE OF THE ABOVE: Contemporary Work by Puerto Rican Artists, opening Saturday, May 1, 6-9pm in Real Art Ways' Main Gallery. The exhibition runs through September 19. Co-curators Deborah Cullen, Silvia Karman Cubiñá and Steven Holmes have selected the following artists:

Allora & Calzadilla, "Traffic Pattern"

Manuel Acevedo
Allora & Calzadilla
Javier Cambre
Nayda Collazo-Llorens
Dzine
Cari Gonzalez-Casanova
Ivelisse Jiménez
Charles Juhász-Alvarado
Ignacio Lang
Malika
Arnaldo Morales
Enoc Perez
Bea Santiago
Chemi Rosado Seijo
Carlos Rivera Villafañe

For more information:
http://www.realartways.org or call 860.232.1006.

Real Art Ways organized this exhibition to showcase the remarkable variety of work being made, both on and off the island, by some of today's Puerto Rican artists. NOTA features a range of work that delves into the unexpected and reflects the individuality of sixteen creative talents.

Deborah Cullen (Curator, El Museo del Barrio in New York), Silvia Karman Cubiñá (Director, The Moore Space in Miami) and Steven Holmes (Director of Visual Arts, Real Art Ways) selected paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs and installation work.

NOTA is not "about" Puerto Rican identity, nor does it limit itself to geography (artists come from a wide range of places), nor does it impose a litmus test of politics or representation. Rather, it celebrates a moment in time, in which definitions are expanding and transforming, and barriers are being burrowed under and broken down.

The exhibition will stretch outside the walls of Real Art Ways' Main Gallery to include music, film, spoken word, performances, Real Room exhibitions and more from May through September 2004. The None of the Above Live Arts Series kicks off with a reading by Glaisma Pérez-Silva on May 8 and a concert by Papo Vazquez on June 5. Information is available at http://www.realartways.org.

NONE OF THE ABOVE proposes a new way of seeing and thinking about Puerto Rican art, re-shaping the standard curatorial frameworks based on nationalism, identity politics and geography. The exhibition will identify a critical and aesthetic strain within Puerto Rican art practice that negotiates location, politics and identity and is best described as a kind of Neo-Conceptualism.

As opposed to previous generations of artists whose agendas were decidedly more nationalistic explorations of identity, such as the well-known artists Antonio Martorell, Arnaldo Roche Rabell, Pepón Osorio and Juan Sánchez, these artists are informed by more personal issues, as well as broader topics such as gender, consumerism, world history, film and literature.

One can trace the work of a diverse group of contemporary Puerto Rican artists, in fact, to 1970s conceptual art, as it was practiced both by artists in the wider art scene of the period as well as by a number of Puerto Rican artists during the period, specifically early video work, conceptualism, pop art, and actions or body art.

The exhibition will not be an historical survey, but will instead focus on the resurgence, or re-articulation of Conceptualism by a new, younger generation of Puerto Rican artists. The catalogue will further explore the relationships between this contemporary generation and its antecedents in the art scene of the 1970s. Examples of these early Puerto Rican Conceptualists include Rafael Moñtanez Ortiz, Papo Colo, Edin Velez, Rafael Ferrer, Carlos Irizarry and Joaquin Mercado. Artists working in the 1980s and early-1990s, including Pepón Osorio, Nestor Otero, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anaida Hernandez, Dhara Rivera and, especially, Felix Gonzalez Torres have also had an impact on the newest generation of conceptualists.

Real Art Ways is a 28-year-old alternative, multi-disciplinary arts organization that presents and supports contemporary artists and their work, facilitates the creation of new work, and creatively engages and informs audiences and communities. Real Art Ways integrates artists and innovation into creative development of communities, and Real Art Ways is committed to engaging its publics in dialogue, which explores esthetic, cultural, and social issues.

View this press release online at http://www.realartways.org/press.