En Foco is proud to announce the opening of In-Between: The 2018 En Foco Photohgraphy Fellowship Exhibition

by En Foco, posted in En Foco
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En Foco is proud to announce the opening of In-Between: The 2018 En Foco Photohgraphy Fellowship Exhibition, and the launch of the 2018 Fellowship Edition of Nueva Luz on June 6th, 2018 from 6-8pm at the Andrew Freedman Home, featuring a performance by BombaYo, a Bronx-based performance organization that uses the legacy of Bomba music to engage the community. The ten Fellowship winners were selected from a pool of 162 applicants. The Fellowship initiative not only affirms En Foco’s ongoing commitment to the financial support of artists of color, it also serves to inform exhibition organizers and curators of an existing pool of vastly under recognized artists. Layza Garcia, En Foco’s Director of Programs, states that “we are very excited by this new round of Fellowship recipients.” Further she adds, ” each artist is aesthetically different but yet, they complement each other as the public will view in the upcoming exhibition, a very exciting experience.”

En Foco’s 2018 Photography Fellowship winners are Alexis Ruiseco, Antonio Pulgarin, Gioncarlo Valentine, Hidemi Takagi, Jonathan Gardenhire, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Mark Aghatise, Rhynna Santos, Tau Battice, and Yu-Chen Chiu. The Fellowship winners selected are based exclusively on the excellence and quality of the work submitted. All work is reviewed by panelists who are all distinguished members of the arts community: Joanna E. Castro, Executive Director of Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance; Laura James, Bronx artist and illustrator; and Ayesha Akhtar, Community Engagement and Marketing Associate of the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Eva Mayhabal Davis, Gallery and Studio Program Manager of Smack Mellon, will curate this year’s Fellowship exhibition and the special issue of Nueva Luz. Eva says that she hopes “to create a bridge between the viewer and the artwork.” She also comments “seeing these powerful images impacts how I continue to exist in my surroundings.”

Exhibition Location: The exhibition opens on June 6th till July 6th at the Andrew Freedman Home at 1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10452.

Phone: 718-588-8200.

Opening Reception: June 6th from 6-8pm.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday: 10:00am-6:00pm; Saturday: By appointment.

Nueva Luz: The 2018 Photography Fellowship Issue will be available for purchase and on view online on June 6th. For more information on subscribing to Nueva Luz, please contact Layza Garcia at info@enfoco.org.

About BombaYo: BombaYo ignites the ancestral rhythms of Bomba, an African derived music and dance tradition developed in Puerto Rico. The synergy of call and response singing, drumming and dance provide the foundation for a dynamic interplay between the solo drummer and dancer. In the spirit of Sankofa -looking to your past for better future- BombaYo members draw from the bomba tradition to enrich their lives and embrace their cultural legacy. Through workshops, cultural presentations, performances and partnerships, BombaYo engages communities throughout NYC area to raise awareness of Afro Puerto Rican culture and to connect Bomba to the vast traditions of the African Diaspora. BombaYo creates an intergenerational and participatory experience that honors people of all ages and abilities. BombaYo stirs the soul in a way that only music and dance can to uplift and celebrate our deeper humanity. For more information please visit http://www.bombayo.org. 

En Foco, Inc. supports contemporary fine art and documentary photographers of color and diverse cultures, using photography as a platform to speak on behalf of issues related to cultural equity and access. En Foco provides its photographers, curators, critics & cultural activists with forum to advocate on behalf of an inclusive cultural policy that historically has been lacking in substance. En Foco supports its constituent artists with direct and indirect funding opportunities, professional development services, curated exhibitions, publications and networking events with industry and cultural leaders. Learn more at www.enfoco.org and follow us on facebook.com/enfoco & twitter.com/enfoco.

The En Foco Photography Fellowship Program is made possible with the generosity of the Aguado-Pavlick Arts Fund, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, the Joy of Giving Something, Inc., with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts.  En Foco is a member of the Urban Arts Cooperative. A special thank you to the Andrew Freedman Home.

©Antonio Pulgarin, Encaged Linage, Fragments of the Masculine series, 2017.

En Foco and X Gallery Present: Queer Eye Featuring  Lola Flash, Lisa DuBois, Oscar J Rivera and Gabriel Garcia Roman

by En Foco, posted in En Foco

 

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 X Gallery and En Foco  present Queer Eye, A photographic exhibition celebrating LGBTQ Pride month. The month of June was chosen to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. As a result, we recognize this month to honor our diversity and the impact LGBT people have had in the world.

 

About the Artists

Lola Flash is multitalented photographer, artist and cultural documentarian revealing profound stories through her photographs. The images from her Legend series beautifully portray the hard-hitting truths of societal issues. The viewer recognizes the royal nature of the portrait, and the struggles of injustice behind the beautiful faces. She forces the viewer to engage in these social issues through her images. Common themes of Lola’s subjects are the forgotten or those ignored by mainstream media and society. Lola’s subjects range from the LGBQT community, to successful and talented women over the age of 70. Lola’s style of portraiture was recently recognized by Smithsonian magazine; as a result her work will appear in an upcoming issue.

Lisa DuBois is a visual artist. She transforms photos into unique works of art. Lisa shares images from her series Beauty Queens. The collection is enhanced portraits taken at the Imperial Court of New York Ball. The Imperial Court organization is proudly known for being one of the oldest and largest LGBTQ organizations in the world. Lisa’s subjects are shown wearing crowns and extravagant gowns living the high life. Lisa’s photos represent a subculture of self expression and creative extravagance.

Oscar J Rivera’s, series Triangle, documents queer bodies of color and personal relationships through striking and richly printed black and white photographs. Queer people of color are presented existing as their own definitions of sensual or sexual beings- masculine or feminine – driven by the intimacy of interviews with the artist. The relationship of artist to subject is heightened by the act of collaboration which aims to highlight the delicate balance between sensuality and sexuality, and the intersectionality of being queer and a person of color.

Gabriel Garcia Roman is a Mexican- American visual artist that creates works of art that are drawn from many facets of the gender and queer spectrum Gabriel transmutes his subjects into icons, dovetailing textured collage and photography into one-of-a-kind prints.  In his series Queer Icons, Gabriel finds inspiration in portraiture styles of Renaissance, Flemish and Christian Orthodox paintings, the series aims to elevate these multi-dimensional, powerful and proud contemporary figures.

Exhibition on view: June 1st to June 30th. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 6pm

Meet and Greet: June 14th from 6 until 9 at X Gallery  163 118th street, and Malcolm X Boulevard.

 

Blue Sky Gallery & En Foco partner to provide solo exhibitions at Blue Sky Galleries for En Foco Fellowship Award Winners, Daesha Devón Harris and Cinthya Santos-Briones!

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This June 2018, photographers Cinthya Santos-Briones and Daesha Devón ​Harris will each present solo exhibitions at Blue Sky Gallery as the first winners of the En Foco Photography Fellowship Exhibition Prize at Blue Sky. The Exhibition Prize is a collaboration between the two organizations which will bring increased visibility to En Foco and its Photography Fellowship program, and will expand the diversity of artists shown at Blue Sky. As part of the exhibition, the photographers and members of the En Foco staff will visit and speak about their work. The exhibitions will be on view June 7 – July 1, 2018.

En Foco Photography Fellowship is designed to support photographers of color who demonstrate the highest quality of work as determined by a photography panel of peers and industry professionals. Since its inception, En Foco received over 300 submissions and only open to New York City and State residents. Photography Fellowship winners are awarded $1,000 each; participate in a group exhibition; featured in En Foco’s ​Nueva Luz publication, in printed and online editions; and provide professional development and networking opportunities.

Blue Sky Executive Director Lisa DeGrace comments, “Having spent many an hour pouring through En Foco’s website and magazine (​Nueva Luz), we are thrilled to be in active collaboration with En Foco. En Foco consistently showcases and supports the best contemporary emerging photographers, and so we are excited to offer two of these artists their first solo exhibitions on the West Coast. ”En Foco Director of Programs Layza Garcia says, “We are very excited about this new collaborative partnership with Blue Sky Gallery. This is an amazing opportunity to expose underserved photographers of color to communities who normally wouldn’t recognize them. We, at En Foco, strive to provide support and advocate for the voiceless.”

About the Artists

Cinthya Santos-Briones: Before becoming a documentary photographer, Santos-Briones studied anthropology and history, which led her to work as a researcher in institutions in Mexico focused on the study of indigenous and rural communities. Her work as a photographer is centered on community, migration, gender, identity, and the struggle for human rights. Cinthya is a recent graduate of the Visual Journalism And Documentary Practice Program at the International Center Of Photography in New York City. In the autumn of 2016 she received a fellowship granted by the Magnum Foundation. Her exhibition, ​Abuelas: Portraits of the Invisible Grandmothers, honors the culture and experiences of undocumented Mexican grandmothers, while exploring the women’s relationships with their environments and their identities.

Daesha Devón Harris ​is a Saratoga Springs, New York native, artist and photographer who has spent time in Buffalo, NY and San Francisco, CA. Both her multi-cultural family and the unexpected death of her young father have greatly shaped her life. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from the College Of Saint Rose and a MFA in Visual Art from The University at Buffalo. Harris has been featured in numerous exhibitions in New York State, Philadelphia, PA, Louisville, CO, and beyond. Her exhibition, ​My Soul Has Grown Deep like the Rivers, uses the visual language of African American folklore along with personal and cultural histories to re-examine the current and historical discourse on race and the ongoing struggle for freedom.

About Blue Sky

Blue Sky, the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts,​ is an exhibition space and resource center for artists, the general public, and the national and international photographic communities, located in the historic DeSoto Building in Portland, OR, on the east side of the North Park Blocks between NW Davis and Couch Streets.​ ​Blue Sky’s mission has remained steadfast since 1975: to educate the public about photography through exhibitions, publications, and dialogue; and to further the careers and artistic development of the artists shown.