AMY BRAVO & ALBERT PEGUERO

La Isla De Barro

Curated by Anne-Laure Lemaitre & Bony Ramirez

November 19th 2022 - January 7th 2023

There is more to a territory than its geographical location. A territory has a smell, a sound, an atmosphere, a light that distinguishes it from any other place on earth. When evoking tropical insular spaces, we tend to reduce them to a series of attractive attributes, brushing off their complex historical and social specificities. An island is by definition isolated, separated from any other land by its coastal shores. But far from being solely focused inwards, these enclaves have been predominant sites of cultural hybridization and cross-pollination. Islands are a meeting point. Both an inbetween and a destination.

Amy Bravo, *The Leader of the Cavalry*, 2022, Acrylic, Graphite, Wax Pastel, Embroidery, Found Object and Collage on Canvas, 72"H x 108"W x 2.5”D

La Isla De Barro offers as premise the creation of a fantasized world where two artists’ personal obsessions and narratives, anchored in their distinctive history and relationship to a home drawn from memories, recollections or tales, blend into an immersive scene of wonder. Expanding off the wall, both practices build further on their makers’ deeply rooted connection to an emotional geography they recognize as their own.

Albert Peguero, *New York City Fruit #1*, 2022, Ceramic and Metal, 29"H x 20"W x 20”D

Recontextualizing their distinctive cultural specificities, Amy Bravo and Albert Peguero each explore their unique bond to their homeland in subjective ways. While Amy Bravo uses symbolism, memorabilia, recounted familial histories and ownership of self as a means to reinvent a fantastic, intimate vision of Cuba, Albert Peguero adopts the traditional building aesthetic from his native Dominican Republic to create playful and surreal functional structures which interrogate the shared experience of working class immigrants. For the exhibition, both practices are put in contextual dialogue as to create a dynamic space the viewer can immerse themself in.

Albert Peguero, *Se Fue La Luz*, 2022, Wood, Paint, and Lights, 77"H x 20"W x 38”D

Amy Bravo, *A Curio (Detail)*, Acrylic, Graphite, Plaster, Collage and Found Object, 52"H x 22"W x 3”D

The tale La Isla De Barro narrates is one of radical pluralities and possible reinventions. It outlines a world in which monolithic representations and assumptions are refuted by uncompromisingly linking intimacy, legacy and territory. It celebrates singularity as a vital component of a greater universal story, and offers a nuanced perspective on belonging as a state of being.

Text By Anne-Laure Lemaitre