By Jennifer Vazquez –
The art department of NJCU was well represented by professors and faculty in the art exhibition “We Are You Project Inaugural Exhibit.” Six of the thirty three artists in this show were NJCU professors and faculty of Latin descent; they were Hugo Xavier Bastidas, Gerardo Castro, Hugo Morales, DudaPenteado, JoseRodeiro, and Sergio Villamizar. Not to mention, NJCU President Carlos Hernandez was one of the speakers at the opening.
This project has been in development for over two years and has shown internationally, with Duda Penteado as one of the curators. The gist is to visually portray the struggle of Latin people in the United States and to bring these important issues to the foreground through art.
Professor Hugo Bastidas felt the exhibition “… was a good survey of Latinos’ overview of assimilation and immigration. Some were the peril; some were the triumphs— I think we can relate to all of it.”
Adjunct Professor Gerardo Castro said the highlight of the exhibition was “…the amount of people that did show up to the opening, because, at first when the show was being organized, we didn’t know how it was going to be received by the public. It was great to see so many different people, in terms of culture, attend the show. It was surprising.”
Bastidas’ painting Bearing Gifts (2009) depicts a close-up of a cactus, serving as a subtle allusion to the struggles of Mexican immigrants crossing the border.
“The cactus was a good metaphor for how difficult it is to be in this country, whether you are an immigrant or not. The discarded teddy bear in the cactus is indicative of our struggle to get to the prize,” said Bastidas.
Castro’s mixed-media work Migration of the Spirit (2010-11) alludes to the customs and rituals of Puerto Rican culture that Castro himself wishes he had experienced. He expressed he had a “longing to experience what my mother knew as child.” The works of NJCU professors and faculty from NJCU, though very different from each other’s, were some of the most coherent works in the whole show.
While Bastidas’ work alluded to Mexican immigrants’ struggles by subtly juxtaposing the teddy bear with the cactus, Castro literally does so through a division of the canvas and the sharp transitions of mediums used within these divisions- it is more literal in that sense.
NJCU faculty and MFA student Sergio Villamizar’s digital print Saint Patriot (2011) juxtaposes the Latin tradition of honoring saints with symbols of American ideals to comment on the inconsistencies of the American identity and nationalism. His work, like many others shown, was visually striking yet subtle in their meaning.
The “We Are You Project” has its own site, www.weareyouproject.org, where you can read more about the project’s mission, history, and details about the artists and their works in the show. You can even watch a very insightful and moving video interview with our very own Professor Bastidas.
