LA GALERÍA at Villa Victoria Center for the Arts
85 West Newton Street
Boston, Massachusetts
September 16 through November 3
Essex Art Center
56 Island Street
Lawrence, Massachusetts
October 1 through December 3
Contemporary curatorial theory stresses “polyphonic
situations” rather than the single master narrative
voicings associated with past practice. So asserts star
European curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, now co-director of
exhibitions and programs and director of international
projects at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
Given that there are five curatorial collaborators for the exhibition,
called “Exchange,” a polyphonic situation does surely emerge at the
very outset.
“Exchange” was organized by: Essex Art Center’s Executive Director and
Chester F. Sidell Gallery Director Leslie Costello, Special Projects and Elizabeth A. Beland Gallery Director Cathy McLaurin, former LA GALERÍA gallery manager and curator and now editor-at-large for “New American Paintings” Evan J. Garza, LA GALERÍA’s current curator and manager Anabel Vázquez-Rodríguez, and project manager Cecilia Mendez, soon to be director of the Center for Art and Community Partnerships at Mass College of Art and Design.
The very spirit of “Exchange” permeates its every aspect, from the
conjoining of multiple curatorial visions through several artists’ own
collaborative efforts in production. “At times ‘Exchange’ refers to an
interchange of ideas, processes and ultimately products…[it] also relates
to an interplay and range of histories, cultures and technologies within
an individual artist’s work.”
The impetus for highlighting cross-cultural endeavors dynamically is an
essential part of the missions of Boston’s Villa Victoria Center for the
Arts (showcasing Latino art), and the Essex Art Center (nurturing the
artistic potential of the diverse Lawrence community). When Costello
moved to Boston’s South End two years ago, she immediately recognized
the promise of the nearby Villa Victoria Center as a collaborative partner.
She moved enthusiastically ahead with its director, Javier Torres, for a
first-time-ever collaboration that aims to interconnect the institutions
and cross-pollinate their diverse audiences.
In response to a wide-ranging Internet call, works by 15 North American
and regional artists were eventually selected by the curatorial team for
the exhibition. “We all came with our own eyes and then learned to
compromise, to defend or champion, to articulate our choices,” Costello
said. The resultant works encompass a wide range of media, traditional
through digital, that reference multiple and often idiosyncratic sources
of inspiration. Artistic styles of markedly diverse figurative and abstract
currents — several derived from the formative years of modernism —
echo flat pattern Cubism, Mirò and Torres-Garcia in surprising ways.
A site-specific video installation referencing the historical and current
landscapes of the city of Lawrence and Boston’s South End is presented
in both exhibiting institutions as a context and backdrop for the works
presented. This collaboration between Liz Nofziger (East Boston) and
Linda Price-Sneddon (Salem, Mass.) aims for an “expanded perception
of physical places.” The degree to which a sense of place inflects the
making of art has, of course, become a near truism in the contemporary
world, but the contrast of New England and Latino cultures should be
made vivid by this particular cross-referencing. At the same time the
element of water is a large feature of both communities (whether river
and canal or 19th-century landfill and tidal marsh), a condition of crosscurrents
persistently informing the work of the “Exchange” artists as well
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