For Us: On The Importance of Community-Based Exhibitions in the Bronx
“The Living Kitchen.” Courtesy of Xola Thompson.
Today, the Bronx is facing gentrification, displacement, and fetishization—all while being NYC’s most underserved borough for decades. So what does this sudden attention mean for the well being of native local Bronx artists? I knew part of the solution was to create cultural gathering spaces with intention, instead of operating from a place of personal profit. I approached curating both of my exhibitions “The Update” and “The Living Room Kitchen” with Bronx artists and the local community in mind. As I intentionally placed the exhibitions on the Grand Concourse, known as the vein of The Bronx, I aimed to encapsulate the external/street stories and internal/home stories of the borough with works by local Black and Latinx artists.
I became concerned about these issues in 2018 while curating an exhibition in the South Bronx and passing by the brand new high rises being built on Third Ave and 138th Street. Then I learned multiple stories about Bronx artists of color being taken advantage of by developers, unable to afford studios and apartments in their own borough as artists from outside the borough are moving in. I also learned how how many art institutions were overlooking local artistic talent and showing international and more established artists instead. The story of Bronx artists being overlooked, underrepresented, and under-supported in their own borough is repeated again and again. At the same time, local institutions were wondering why they were struggling to engage the local community.
I spent two years doing studio visits with artists from the Bronx who were eager, talented, resourceful, and full of passion. I also had multiple meetings with various spaces, researching and negotiating. This led to two exhibitions on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, “The Update” at The Longwood Gallery at Hostos and “The Living Room Kitchen” at The Andrew Freedman Home. I took my time with this process because I wanted to make sure that I could trust each gallery, that the budget was sufficient enough to support my labor, the programs, and of course, pay each artist for their participation.
“The Update,” which featured 10 young Bronx Black and Latinx artists telling the street narrative of the borough, had over 400 people in attendance at its opening—the most The Longwood Gallery ever had in its history. After having conversations with the artists and the visitors, many were thankful to finally have an all Bronx artist exhibition that shed light on its young artistic community and how we are representing the Bronx with its history and native contemporary culture in mind. Our culture is resourceful, resilient, and gritty and I wanted to show just that. Monica Flores, a non-binary Chicanx artist, showcased an array of polaroids and cyanotype photos taken at Uptown parties and underground punk shows. Flores strives to document the existence and resistance of young uptown creatives via intimate photographs shining light on tender and mundane moments. Similarly, Dominican artist Rocio Marie Cabrera debuted her Uptown babes (2020) series for “The Update” and sculpted figurines in mundane yet fantastical street scenes as an ode to young Bronx womxn, our culture, and aesthetic. Mexican and Puerto Rican artist Estelle Maisonett and Dominican artist Stanley Steel both respond to the streets of the Bronx via found objects such as smashed soda cans and discarded street signs. Stanley Steel adds his signature via graffiti and branded stickers. Maisonett is deeply interested in covering the Uptown experience and issues affecting our community such as gang violence as seen in Bodega (2018), which responds to the murder of the Dominican teen, Junior Lessandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz, by five gang members who mistaken him for someone else at a Bronx bodega. Whether the pieces were responsive to issues affecting the Bronx or celebratory of our culture, I aimed to cover our whole story and our resilience as a community.
With “The Update” showing till February 26th, “The Living Room Kitchen” opened 18 blocks away on February 7th. “The Living Room Kitchen” focuses on 11 Black and Latinx artists speaking about the many functions and memories of the living room and kitchen within the home. My main goal was to make people feel like they are visiting their abuela’s house. Mi Juventud, an installation piece by Alizé Santana featuring an interactive dominoes table, family photo wall, and piragua cart mimics her grandmother’s house. Influenced by her Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian background, the installation speaks to Santana’s memories of growing up in the Bronx—from Kennedy’s Fried Chicken to her grandmother playing dominoes and smoking cigarettes while salsa music plays in the background. Here, Santana shines light on the mundane in a Latinx household and how food, drinking and past times, such as playing dominoes, creates a space of gathering that values priceless moments spent with family. During the exhibition opening, visitors were encouraged to play dominoes with Santana’s grandmother who was sitting at the dominoes table “smoking” a ceramic cigarette.
As Santana recreates her grandmother’s house, Salvadoran artist John Rivas uses found mediums sourced from his family’s home to create assemblage pieces inspired by old family photos. In this exhibition, Rivas experimented with non-traditional mediums such as uncooked black beans, refrigerator magnets, and a shopping cart — items telling a kitchen story. With focus on living room scenes, Dominican photographer Shaira Chaer created “Labor of Love,” a photo documentary series that incorporates portraits, first-person narratives and public health outcomes when it comes to pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and parenthood. The photo essays center the voices of Bronx femme, queer, trans and gender non-conforming birth givers and birth partners of color. As a young Bronx parent herself, Chaer saw it to be essential to cover these stories from her perspective. Point of view and identity play in a key role when creating or painting images of people of similar background. Afro-Latinx artists Raelis Vasquez and Mónica Hernández paint scenes taking place either in the living room or kitchen unfolding how their figures navigate these domestic spaces. Both powerfully respond to the white male Eurocentric gaze in art history by painting figures of color through their lens.
Afro-Latinx artists Raelis Vasquez and Mónica Hernández paint scenes taking place either in the living room or kitchen unfolding how their figures navigate these domestic spaces. Both respond to the white male Eurocentric gaze in art history by painting figures of color through their lens.
“The Update” and “The Living Room Kitchen” are odes to Uptown stories and our black and brown communities. At a time where the city is changing and we as a borough mostly made up of low-income families are at risk, I strived for these exhibitions to be a reminder that our cultures and ways of living are valid, precious, and influential. I hope the pieces worked as a mirror held up to the visitors. I hope they saw their reflection and realized how beautiful they are. While the arts are known to expedite gentrification, I learned that artists seeing themselves represented in exhibitions can also help empower them to value their community and mobilize to defend it. These exhibitions weren’t about fighting gentrification and all the issues affecting Bronx artists. It was more about turning our attention to our community and taking up spaces that belong to us.
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Kiara Cristina Ventura is a Bronx born Dominican-American independent curator, consultant, writer, Teen Vogue Art School columnist, and CEO of ARTSYWINDOW. Ventura aims to curate spaces highlighting and documenting the works of young artists of color with healing in mind. Her writing has appeared in Art Forum, Performa Mag, Cultured Mag, and more. She has curated at The Museum of the African Diaspora San Francisco, The Bronx Art Space, Vis Arts Maryland, Penn State University, The Longwood Gallery at Hostos, The Andrew Freedman Home, and Reparations Club LA.
ARTSYWINDOW (est. 2015) is Ventura’s brainchild where she physically and virtually curates exhibitions, programs, and products for creatives and communities of color. Under her platform, she is teaching mobile art history classes about contemporary artists of color. She has previously taught at the Miranda Kuo Gallery, the Gavin Brown Enterprise, VICE headquarters, various artist & collectors’ living rooms, Ed.Varie, 8Ball Collective Headquarters, and Ghetto Gastro. Her work has been written about in Art Forum and Art Net.