I'm honored and humbled to have my "Caja De Memoria Viva II: Constancia Clemente-Colon" installation on display at the Smithsonian Museum: National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. The opening to the public will be on Saturday March 12th.
I will be there with a group of close friends and family to celebrate this milestone in my artistic career. If you are in the DC area and would like to join us for a group visit to the museum, we will be gathering there at 1:00pm.
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has selected the finalists for the exhibition resulting from the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. The juried exhibition’s 43 pieces include sculptures, mixed-media pieces, photographs, paintings and drawings. The works will be exhibited at the museum from March 12, 2016, through Jan. 8, 2017.
The selected finalists mark a turning point in advancing American contemporary portraiture. The jurors considered this exhibition a synopsis of historical and cultural events that have unfolded in the past three rounds, particularly in terms of race, sexual identity, gender and concerns about protecting childhood in an age of technology and gun violence.
“I was very impressed with the social-impact choices made this year,” said Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery. “This year’s competition finalists are truly remarkable and reflect the rigor with which they were chosen by the judges. Each judge came with a definite and strong point of view about what he or she considered a portrait to be and how today’s artists are part of the national dialogue around issues of race, identity, family and community. I defy anyone coming to the exhibition not to be fundamentally moved by this year’s interpretation of the human condition.”
The competition received more than 2,500 entries in a variety of visual-arts media. Submissions included digital animation and video, large-scale drawings, prints, photographs and textiles, as well as painted and sculpted portraits.
The exhibition reveals that in this media age—where the “selfie” is part of the visual landscape—the art of portraiture is not only universal, it is thriving and evolving. The dazzling variety of media and diverse approaches to the exploration of “self” and “other” challenge the preconceived notions of portraiture and expand the limits of the imagination.