CSV Center | Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center

CSV CULTURAL CENTER
107 Suffolk Street,
New York, NY 10002
P: (212) 260-4080

Abrazo Interno Gallery Archive

Art By mia Visions of Puerto Rico & Puerto Rican Pride

June 12th – 28th 2009 – Opening Show on June 12th 7:00 PM –10:00PM

Visions of Puerto Rico & Puerto Rican Pride celebrates Puerto Rican culture through photography. The show will include more than fifty works by emerging and established artists from Puerto Rico, Miami FL and New York City. Each artist brings a unique style and vision to the exhibition. These artists have discovered the beauty, tales and the history of their culture, which have been incorporated into their craft. Some of the pieces will depict community, urban settings, music, nature, family, politics and spirituality. The photos embrace the cultural empowerment of the Puerto Ricans and their pride. They will evoke emotion and discussion. We have bridged a gap between the Puerto Ricans on the Island and the Puerto Ricans outside of the island and this exhibit is the result of that connection.

Art By mia A Poetic Tribute to our She-Roes & Heroes of Poetry

June 19th, 2009 – 7:00 PM – 10:00PM

A Poetic Tribute to our She-Roes & Heroes of Poetry celebrates the accomplishments of those who have paved the way for other Latino poets. The event will showcase talents of published and emerging poets of Puerto Rico and New York, with a broad range of topics. Voices that are passionate and experiences that are personal and sometimes painful. Each artist brings a unique style and vision to the stage. The listeners will relate to the challenges that some have faced and recognize the accomplishments of others.

This poetry event is sure to grab you out of your seat, knock you off your feet, take your imagination farther than it has been before and talk to your soul. A Poetic Tribute to our She-Roes & Heroes of Poetry will leave you hungry for more and star struck with performances by Jesus “Papoleto“ Melendez, Sandra Maria Esteves, El Grito de Poetas, Dylcia Pagan, Jose Angel Figueroa, Bobby Gonzalez, Mariposa, Daniel Jose Custodio, Sery Colon, Nancy Mercado, Myrna Nieves and more.

Invisibility The Importance of In/Visibility

Recent Work by Native American Artists
Living In New York City

April 11-May 9 | Opening Reception: April 16, 6-8pm

Gallery Hours: Wed-Sat. from 12-6pm
Call 212-598-0968 or 212-260-4080, ext.11

Clarisel Gonzales photo Latinas En Foco
Celebrating Women Photographers

March 12th – 28th 2009

Opening Show on March 12th 7:00 PM – 9:00PM

Clarisel Gonzalez, Mia Roman Hernandez, Elena Marrero, Jasmin Ortiz, Vivien Perez, Amy Ponce, Gabriella Parra, Elaine Eversley, Allicette Torres

“Latinas En Foco” will include more than fifty works in photography by emerging and established artists. Works have been acquired through an open submission and invitation format with loosely stipulated size restrictions. Many of the works will be available for purchase providing a rare opportunity to own original pieces.

Each artist brings a unique style and vision. These artists have discovered their beauty, their tales and their history in which has been incorporated into their craft of photography. Some of the pieces will depict Latino Cultures, Community, Family, Spirituality and will embrace the feminine empowerment of today’s woman. The viewers will be able to connect to some of the challenges and the ordinary lives of some of the photographs. The photos will evoke emotion, feeling and discussion. They will convey something deeper about how the subjects confront the place where they live and the situation in which they find themselves. Each portrait also provides a broader opportunity to reflect on our shared humanity.

Enignmatic Visions Enigmatic Visions

*or by appointment 212.260.4080, ext 11 or 212.368.4353 or email: paulcabezas7@yahool.com

La Tierra Promentada

La Tierra Prometida

A benefit event for Eseohe Arhebamen

Saturday, February 7th, 5pm-9pm

A benefit event at CSV featuring "#18," a butoh/theater piece based on a poem by Clemente Soto Vélez that explores themes of homosexuality and freedom. "#18" is choreographed by Eseohe Arhebamen and written in collaboration with Michael Freeman and Douglas Allen.

Following is an audience-interactive, movement-based installation by renowned live-video artist Holly Daggers. Be transported to surreal landscapes as you dance to Latin music by DJ Seth Yamasaki & drink at the CSV BAR! Also premiering The Cement Factory, a short film starring Eseohe Arhebamen, created in collaboration with Forward Motion Theater.

Eseohe Arhebamen is a poet-musician, dancer/choreographer, mixed-media visual artist, and performance artist. As EdoHeart, Eseohe has collaborated with numerous artists and organizations on producing multimedia events and experimental works in the arts. Born in Nigeria, raised in Detroit City and currently residing in New York, Eseohe's artworks reflect a diversity of cultures and the interrelations of media. Eseohe Arhebamen's works are heavily influenced by traditional Afrikan Theater and her study of Butoh. Awards include the Arthur Miller Award for Fiction, the University of Michigan Hopwood Award for Poetry, the Jeffrey Weisberg Memorial Prize and an InsideOut Fellowship funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Eseohe has performed or shown work internationally in Africa, America and Asia. She has taught poetry, visual arts and dance for the past 8 years in Detroit and New York and has been an activist on issues of Environmental Justice, Violence Against Women and Peace.

Holly Daggers is a live-video artist who creates and composes visual media in real time. She has performed as a concert VJ for Busta Rhymes, James Brown, Page McConnell, Moby, and T.I., and was voted a Top 20 VJ worldwide by DJ Magazine, UK. She has designed video environments for Fortune Magazine and Old Navy, and created interactive video installations for the Museum of Modern Art, NY. Holly collaborates with musicians and choreographers, presenting her media performances in art gallery, concert, and theatrical settings, and has opened her shooting studio to create Dance on Video as a hybrid performance venue. In 2006, Holly traveled to 34 cities with music acts featuring Ludacris, The Roots, Common, Talib Kwali, Pharcyde, and Blackalicious, creating opportune art performances by pulling members of the hip hop audience into her live chromakey rig. As co-director with Eric Dunlap of Forward Motion Theater, a non-profit arts organization, she developed EyeWash, a six-year performance series which has fostered interdisciplinary collaborations between more than 150 digital media artists and live performers.

Michael Freeman is a actor, dancer, clown and director. He has studied Native American clown work with Sue Morrison in Canada and American circus styles at the New York Clown school. He was a scholarship student at the Martha Graham school and also studied extensively with Merce Cunningham. He has created roles in many short films recently including "Happy Birthday" an official selection at the 2008 Coney Island Film Festival, and "Christine" an official selection at Cannes. His upcoming projects include two horror film premieres "The Shockers", a gay and lesbian horror film, and "Clownstrophobia" this spring 2009. He recently appeared in the choreography of Martha Bowers and will perform in Catherine Gasta's new mime/dance work "A Piece Of Humanity" in April.

Douglas Allen graduated from Michigan State University's Theatre program with a B.A. in 1998. Along with acting, he was a senior member with The American Mime Theatre for eight years, and has been working lately with Ollom Dance Theatre as a modern dancer/collaborative choreographer. He is soon to be a published poet, compliments of Feral Press, with his collection "Weathervanes." He has been seen in productions at Jacob's Pillow, The National Arts Club, PS 122, The Brick, Here Arts Center, and La Mama E.T.C.

Seth Yamasaki is a rare-record collector, dj and visual artist. He can be heard Wednesdays on dailysession.com radio.

For more info visit edoheart.org or email info@edoheart.org

Drawings & Paintings by Sandra Mack Valencia & Galia Offri

Sept.12 - Sept.28 | Tuesday & Friday 5pm-8pm; Saturday 2pm-8pm; Sunday: 2pm-5pm

Sandra Mack Valencia Drawings from the Inside Out
Sandra Mack-Valencia

Blow, ink & transfer on paper, 2008

Sandra Mack-Valencia grew up in Colombia, where under the smell of oil paint, turpentine and linseed oil in her father's studio, she developed a passion for the arts, in particular for painting and drawing. She moved to New York in 2000 and finished her MFA at Hunter College in 2007. Sandra's work has been exhibited since 1999 in museums and institutions in Colombia and New York. She received the Nathalie Angles Award in 2007 and the Sommerville Arts Prize in 2008.

Most of Sandra's recent works are a combination of transfers and drawings on paper. Images, like photographs of relatives and close friends are chosen based on the emotional bonding with the people they are related to, and with the hope to go beyond the scope of personal biography, they are transferred, cropped, blurred, or totally modified through the drawing composition. The new images are the result of both an emotional and an aesthetic combination, with sometimes a "hint" of humor.
www.SandraMackValencia.com

A Need to Worry Galia Offri

The Ogre's Daughters, detail, watercolor, 2008

Galia Offri is an Israeli artist living in New York since 2005. Galia received her BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts, Jerusalem in 2003. She then worked as a senior art instructor in the Petach-Tikva Museum of Contemporary Art. Her work has been exhibited since 2003 in New York, Berlin and Israel. In 2008 she had her first solo show in New York City, with a cover article in the Manhattan Times.

"Memory Swamp" - a recurring theme in Galia's work, is a repository where personal demons and memories collide. When the dramatic event is done, all that is left in the painting are the traces of the aftermath. Watercolor paintings and drawings portray the silence in strong, alluring colors and movements. Underneath the stiff appearance of the figures and interiors, memories awake. www.GaliaOffri.com

Bolivian Textiles

April 11 through May 3

Opening Night Reception 7:30pm.

Curated by Nina Cancel

Tommy Mishima painting

The Metastases of Allegiance

Paintings by Tommy Mishima

March 10 - April 1, 2008

Monday through Saturday 3:30 pm to 11:30 pm,
Sundays by appointment

Opening Night Reception March 10 6:30 pm until 7:30 pm

Tommy Mishima was born in Lima, Peru, and moved to the U.S. when he was 17. He holds a degree in Fine Arts from Parsons.

Urban Space 2007:

URBAN COMMUNITIES

February 28 to March 22

Abrazo Gallery

URBANSPACE is a photographic project distributed in the agile form of a multimedia projection. Focusing on the aesthetics of large urban centers as a theme, URBANSPACE unites internationally selected works
and is hosted in the virtual galleries of WOOLOO.ORG.

The first edition (2007)--a projection of 530 images from over 23 countries-- premiered in Rio de Janeiro at the media arts foundation, Oi Futuro. Simultaneous projections were also made in New Life Shop, the Berlin headquarters of WOOLOO.ORG. These projections have since been screened in ECCO during Brasilia's FotoArte, Sao Paulo's Galeria Vermelho, as well as showings during Fotopub07 in Slovenia.

The 2007 edition of URBANSPACE is curated around the theme of “URBAN COMMUNITIES” and examines the diverse formation of local communities, informal situations and other site-specific representations of contemporary urban existence. Anonymity. Survival. Decadence. Defiance.

Works may include photographic documentation of performances and site specific actions, digital interventions as well as traditional film photography.

Artist Urban Space 07 - Abby Goodman . AC Junior . Alex Hill . Bernardo Leitão Gaeiras . Cait Mitchell . Cia de Foto . Claudia Jaguaribe . Coletivo Rolê . Davide Quagliola . Douglas Fogelson . Felipe Varanda . Francis Ginza . Frederico NS . Ilana Bessler . Joao Couto . Leonardo Ramadinha . Margarida Correia . Mark Brown .
Martinka Edoga e Yves Schaum . Maslen e Mehra . Michael Fleming . Natalie Conn . Patricia Gouvêa . Petra Ruzickova . Sergio Zevallos . Tamara Rafkin Belgica . Timo Gaessner . Ubirajara Dettmar

Project by: Ilana Bessler
Curators: Sixten Kai Nielsen, Martin Rosengaard and Randolph Albright

"Lo Nuevo"

Paintings by

Jeannette Sura Sababa

January 17 through
February 23, 2008

Curated by Luis R. Cancel

The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center is pleased to announce the opening of "Lo Nuevo," an exhibition of recent paintings by Jeannette Sura Sababa.

The Chilean artist lives in New York City; her work consists of large color-field paintings.

The exhibition is on view at the the Abrazo Interno Gallery (CSV Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street, 2nd floor, between Delancey & Rivington Streets) from January 17 through February 23, 2008.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday 4:30-9:30 PM and Saturday from 2:00-9:30 PM Closed on Mondays and Sundays

Artist's Statement

My artistic work is an extension of my life. My paintings embrace movement, form and
color that at first glance seem effortless. But intertwined they express with gracefulness
my feelings, particularly my passion for art and life.

My creative process usually starts with a primary color idea, and then evolve into
compositions in which colors open up into different shades until they become highlighted in their different ramifications. The juxtaposition of shades of colors and textures progress toward a hidden personality that the casual observer may discover according to his or her imagination.

More than anything, my art is about vitality, energy, and optimism. From a subjective point of view, art is a synthesis of my inner emotions. Colors, materials and techniques which inspire me to achieve my prime goal: to project simplicity, movement and life throughout my work. Jeannette Sura Sababa

The exhibition was curated by Luis R. Cancel.

Exhibition Sponsor:
Support for this exhibition was provided by the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs and Council Member Domenic M. Recchia.

PORTRAIT OF LOISAIDA

Photographs by

Clayton Patterson and Marisol Díaz

November 8, 2007 – January 12, 2008

Curated by Luis R. Cancel

The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center is pleased to present the work of two photographers, Clayton Patterson and Marisol Díaz, whose attention (and cameras) have been trained on the people, organizations and landmarks of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The Latino community, one of many that have called the area home, adopted the term “Loisaida” that was originally coined by poet/activist, Bittman "Bimbo" Rivas in his 1974 poem of the same name.

For the purposes of this exhibition, CSV defined the boundaries of Loisaida as: 14th Street on the north, the East River on the east, the Bowery on the west and the Manhattan Bridge on the south.

Of the two artists selected, Patterson has the deepest roots and longest history with the Lower East Side as both a chronicler and protagonist. A multi-talented visual artist who creates assemblages as well as utilizes the camera, Patterson is the quintessential resident of the neighborhood, deeply engaged with local and national issues, an advocate for progressive social agendas, distrustful of the government at all levels, and able to use his creative talents to give voice to these diverse threads.

Díaz brings her well-honed documentary style to the neighborhood, having completed now several long-term projects where she immersed herself in a subject and produced photographs that convey to the viewer a degree of intimacy with the subjects that is rarely attained. Díaz spent more than a year-and-a-half in the Loisaida community, visiting nightspots, participating in cultural events, joining the participants of adult education classes or “hanging out” with the youth – all the while various cameras clicking away unobtrusively. Díaz blends into whatever environment she places herself into and more importantly, she is accepted by diverse groups as a “member” giving her, and the viewers of her work, the opportunity to see life from the perspective of an insider.

The Lower East Side is experiencing wrenching change brought on by the unmitigated force of gentrification. There is serious displacement of long-time residents taking place, the closure of neighborhood stores, the exodus of long-time moderate-income residents due to escalating rents and sky-high property values. Taking their place are high-rise condos selling for millions of dollars, fancy boutiques and high-end clothing stores, pricy restaurants and lots of night clubs – the Lower East Side is becoming a textbook example of gentrification.

How this latest iteration of the Loisaida story will end is still being written and it is the hope of the CSV Cultural Center that this “Portrait” exhibition, with its associated rich imagery will serve as a rallying call to preserve the neighborhood in all of its diversity.
Luis R. Cancel, Curator

Support for this exhibition was also provided in part by the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs and Council Member Domenic M. Recchia

Image Gallery (Click for larger image)

alvarado-juárez photo FROM MANHATTAN TO OAXACA:
RECENT PHOTOGRAPHY

Exhibition Dates: September 27 - November 1, 2007

A 3-D photography Installation by:

Francisco Alvarado-Juárez

Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 4:30 - 9:30 PM; Saturday, 2:00 - 9:30 PM;
Closed: Sunday & Monday

The exhibition consists of selections from two distinct series produced by Francisco Alvarado-Juárez over the past two years. "By the Shore of the Hudson: Manhattan" explores the Manhattan shoreline of the Hudson River between 96 Street and 125 Street. The artist selected small and distorted elements of driftwood that spontaneously appears, disappears and blends with the water and the New Jersey skyline leaving a monumental presence of figures resembling flora and fauna. The ephemeral nature of the artwork that inspired this series has been repeatedly photographed from different angles during different times of the day and seasons of the year.

The second series of works are inspired by events in Oaxaca, Mexico where the artists primarily resided for twenty months during 2005-2007, while on a scholarship by the Fulbright Foundation. This period coincided with several difficult and historic events in Mexico, including the controversial Presidential elections. Mr. Alvarado-Juárez undertook extensive video and photographic documentation of these events. It includes many aspects of daily life in Oaxaca, as well as the social and political conflicts of "El Movimiento", Day of the Dead celebrations, public concerts and the life of local artisans, among other activities.

In the year 2005-2006, Alvarado-Juárez was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship by the U.S. government to live in Oaxaca and conduct research on its highly varied and creative artisan community. While there, he mounted six highly successful individual exhibits of painting, photography, installation, video and sound in important museums and galleries throughout Mexico. His stay in Oaxaca, the first time he has lived in Latin America since his childhood, has had an enormous influence on his perception of life.

Born in Honduras, Alvarado-Juárez moved to New York City in 1965 as a young adolescent. He has received many fellowships throughout his career, including: the National Endowment for the Arts (1985, 1989), the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (1993, 1998), the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1990, 2000), the New York Foundation for the Arts (2000), the Gottlieb Foundation (2004) and Fundacion Valparaiso (2004). His work has been shownin numerous exhibitions, both individual and group, in important museums and galleries in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua and Mexico.

For more information about the artist, visit his website at www.franciscoalvarado.com

Support for this exhibition was also provided in part by the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs
and Council Member Domenic M. Recchia

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