Exploring Latinx Art at Dartmouth

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A three-day mini-conference will highlight Latinx art in Dartmouth’s history and future.

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Orozco mural
The conference will highlight Latinx art in Dartmouth’s collections—including Orozco’s The Epic of American Civilization in Dartmouth Library’s Baker-Berry Library. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
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The role of Latinx art and culture in Dartmouth’s history—and future—is the subject of a mini-conference on Latinx Art at Dartmouth, April 18 through April 20. The event, organized by Tatiana Reinoza, an art historian and expert on Latinx art who is a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows, is part of the College’s 250th anniversary celebrations, and is free and open to the public.

“Latinx art is a growing field in the academy and the museum world that highlights the cultural production of artists who live and work in the United States, but who are also of Latin American descent,” Reinoza says. “Often, their work reflects on histories of migration, legacies of colonialism, and anti-racist politics.”

The conference will highlight Latinx art in Dartmouth’s collections—from José Clemente Orozco’s The Epic of American Civilization in Dartmouth Library’s Baker-Berry Library to more contemporary works recently acquired by the Hood Museum of Art, as well as examples of Latinx art activism on campus. New York-based Dominican artist Scherezade García and San Antonio-based painter Ernesto Cuevas Jr. ’98 will be on campus to share their work.

“Scherezade Garcia’s work was recently acquired by the Hood as part of the Dominican York Proyecto Grafica print portfolios,” Reinoza says. “This mini-conference, in collaboration with the 250th celebration, hopes to spotlight these new acquisitions and promote their significance on our campus.”

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Tatiana Reinoza portrait
Event organizer Tatiana Reinoza is an art historian and expert on Latinx art who is a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)

Reinoza planned the conference in conjunction her undergraduate seminar “Art History 48: Borderlands Art and Theory, ” in which students are using Dartmouth’s collections to explore the developments of contemporary art practice along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The students are thinking through borders as conflicted geographies, as physical realities we feel inside our bodies, as spaces where multiple chronologies coincide”—issues both García and Cuevas’ work addresses, Reinoza says. 

The two artists will engage in three public events:

  • At 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18, García—whose work draws on memory and myth to portray issues of colonialization and migration—will lead an art workshop on “How do you color freedom? Cómo le pones color a la libertad?” in Rockefeller Center 003.
  • At 1 p.m. Friday, April 19, in Carson L01, García will give a public talk titled “Little bit of always/un poquito de siempre.”
  • At 10 a.m. Saturday, April 20, in LALACS House, Cuevas will speak on “Mi vida es mi arte/My life is my art: Using Art to Reflect Ourselves and Our Communities.”

García, who earned an associate’s degree in art from Altos de Chavón School of Design, a bachelor’s of fine arts from Parsons School of Design (where she teaches), and a master’s of fine art from the City College of New York, is a co-founder of the Dominican York Proyecto Gráfica, a New York-based printmaking collective. She is the recipient of a 2015 Joan Mitchell Foundation grant and a member of the advisory board of No Longer Empty, an organization that curates art in unconventional settings to spur community conversations about place. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, El Museo del Barrio, Museo de Arte Moderno de Santo Domingo, private collections.

Cuevas, the son of migrant farm workers, writes that he thinks of art “as an exploration of self, a reflection of lived experience, a method of expressing voice, and as a vehicle for developing community.” A freelance artist, designer, and illustrator, he has founded a community arts program; directed the development of an afterschool arts, culture, and leadership program; and taught art to K-8 students in San Antonio.

In addition to Dartmouth 250, Latinx Art at Dartmouth is sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, La Casa, and the Department of Art History.

Hannah Silverstein can be reached at hannah.silverstein@dartmouth.edu.

Hannah Silverstein