Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

The Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, in association with Hidrante, San Juan, is proud to present Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora, a multidisciplinary exhibition spanning twenty-five years of Puerto Rican artistic production from forty-three artists working in Puerto Rico and its U.S. diaspora. Derived from Spanish for “back-and-forth movement,” vaivén is most associated with the supposed ease at which Puerto Ricans migrate between the United States and Puerto Rico. Beyond the comings and goings of travel, this word names decades of physical and cultural ebb and flow that have resulted in more persons of Puerto Rican descent living across the fifty United States than in Puerto Rico itself. In turn, to be Puerto Rican is to be inextricably linked to diaspora, Black and Caribbean epistemologies, and a constant reimagining of home and belonging.

By tracing conceptual and aesthetic intersections across a range of approaches to image- and mark-making, sculpture and installation, and sound and video, artists explore the hybridity of memory, language, and place as they relate to acts of witnessing, resistance, and connection. Works in the exhibition bear witness to a quarter century of cultural, political, and migratory oscillations, while challenging dominant cultural narratives of “island” post-disaster resiliency versus “mainland” diasporic neither-here-nor-there identity. Rather than following a linear trajectory, the exhibition documents Puerto Rican artistic production across time and place to challenge the geographic and cultural authenticity, racialization, and classism that have shaped which voices define Puerto Rican contemporary art, and which continue to be devalued.

Artists in the exhibition include Candida Alvarez, Genesis Báez, Sula Bermudez-Silverman, Ricardo Cabret, Melissa Calderón, Rodríguez Calero, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Gisela Colón, Cristina Córdova, David Antonio Cruz, Maritza Dávila-Irizarry, Larissa De Jesús Negrón, Ada del Pilar Ortiz, Estrella Esquilín, Mónica Félix, Cándida González, GeoVanna Gonzalez, Ivelisse Jiménez, Juanita Lanzo, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Olivia Levins Holden, Ricardo Levins Morales, Nora Maité Nieves, Héctor Méndez Caratini, Colectivo Moriviví, Javier Orfón, Josué Pellot, Joey Quiñones, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Elizabeth Robles, Amber Robles-Gordon, Jezabeth Roca González, Shellyne Rodriguez, Luis Rodríguez Rosario, Raúl Romero, G. Rosa-Rey, Juan Sánchez, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Amarise Deán Santo, Edra Soto, Bibiana Suárez, Nitza Tufiño, and William Villalongo.

Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora is made possible by generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Harlan Boss Foundation for the Arts, and the University of Minnesota Imagine Fund. The exhibition is curated by Teréz Iacovino, director of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, and José López Serra, director of Hidrante, San Juan.

About the Catalogue:

Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora is an exhibition catalogue showcasing the work of forty-three intergenerational artists working from Puerto Rico and its U.S. diaspora. Highlighting their many artistic genres and styles, this bilingual volume uplifts the cultural and political dynamism and shifting interpretations of home and belonging that are inherent to Puerto Rico amid the perpetual transnational migrations of its people.

Praise for Vaivén

"Most of all, I celebrate the complexity and nuance this exhibition offers . . . making it clear that Puerto Rican artistic production across the archipelago and the diaspora is intricate, dynamic, and multifaceted, representing a cultural vaivén of expression and creativity." —Arlene Dávila, from the Foreword

About the Editors

Teréz Iacovino is director of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery.

José López Serra is an independent curator and director of Hidrante, San Juan, a Puerto Rico–based gallery and residency program.

Arlene Dávila is professor of anthropology and American studies at New York University and author of Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics.

For more information, visit the book's webpage: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517919764/vaiven/