BRONXARTSPACE

Outsiders Inside the Bronx

Guest Curator Carey Clark

Opening Thursday August 4, 6-9pm

Show also open Aug 4 - 29, Thu 2:30-6:30, Fri 12:00-6:30, Sat 12:00-5:00

Artists
Jose Rivera, Chen Carrasco, Ray Lopez, Augustine Cruz
Organized by Carey Clark

This exhibition is an in depth view of four artists who have found a common ground at THE POINT C.D.C. over a period of 10 years through workshops, exhibitions and public art works. The works of Jose Rivera, Chen Carrasco, Ray Lopez, Augustine Cruz come together to reveal four very different styles that are linked by years of working together in a salon like atmosphere at "Aficionado Workshops" at THE POINT where Carey Clark, Visual Arts Director, has sought to create a space for artists of all ages to engage in a visual conversation about art and art making. We have been fortunate in this invitation to BronxArtSpace to IDENTIFY and ARTICULATE, in this beautiful space, the work of four artists who are visionaries and craftsmen. The term, "Outsider Art" is just one delineation of many that would serve to identify their genius.

Jose Rivera is a Puerto Rican artist who lives the South Bronx. His multi-media work, whose cornerstone is the re-use of found materials, is informed by an obsession to overcome various physical and mental disabilities, but more importantly this "therapy" has led him to a place where the breadth and quality of the work has made the consideration of his illness secondary. To explore this compulsively detailed body of work, which can only be described as Picassoesque in it’s range and ambition is to wonder why he does not have a more established career. Chen Carrasco, who is a Hunts Point resident, has produced a body of work based on an interior vision that brings his own brand of Surrealism, reminiscent of Di Chirico, onto the canvas in a mysterious miasma of strangely full but empty rooms, floating buxom nudes and whimsical city scapes.

Ray Lopez, from Queens and Manhattan, has been a loyal guest artist at THE POINT and The South Bronx and brings his radical views of contemporary film, politics and the inner psyche to light on canvas and paper.

Augustine Cruz, also a resident of Hunts Point, who suffers from severe epilepsy, has given to his neighborhood a lifetime of woodcarving. His mastery ranges from an ambitious anti-drug theme depicted through a flying bald eagle, with a five-foot wingspan whose talons grasp a skull encrusted in symbols of inner-city strife to the quiet in nature of a pair of peacefully grazing bears. This exhibition is a tribute to artists that live on the edge of things, more than most. It is collaboration between a cutting edge art space and an assets- based community art/social justice center that belies the often ivory tower aspect of the art world. During the time of the exhibition there will be free art classes given by the artists for the residents and children of Mott Haven and an on-site studio.

For all inquiries, contact Carey Clark, Visual Arts Director, 917-822-4853, cclark@thepoint.org

BronxArtSpace started last year: Linda Cunningham, Mitsu Hadeishi, and a group of artists, curators and arts organizations are collaborating to create a series of events, art shows, experimental film, performance, music, readings, and classes.