CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
Network Node
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Name:
Raelis Vasquez
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City/Place:
Chicago/New York City
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Country:
United States
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Hometown:
Santa Cruz de Mao, Dominican Republic
Life & Work
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Bio:
Drawing on historical, political and personal narratives, my paintings are figurative compositions that conjure the complexity of the Afro-Latinx experience. The figures in my work inhabit a state of vulnerability that often encourages the viewer to question their positions on class, race, and geography. I immigrated to the United States in 2002 from the Dominican Republic. Today, I feel an overpowering responsibility (or calling) to the arts and towards my Black, Latinx, and immigrant communities.
I paint using oils in a naturalistic manner as a means to give clarity to the subjects I present. My devotion is to the accurate representation of the convoluted histories of the Dominican Republic. I am aiming to highlight an allegorical narrative that presents the psychological states of the figures in my works while presenting a window to the viewer of their daily lives.
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
Raelis Rayson Vasquez Estrella
Born: 1995 in Mao Valverde, Dominican Republic
Lives and works in NJ/NYC
EDUCATION
2019 - 2021: MFA, Painting and Drawing, Columbia University, NY
2016 - 2018: BFA, Painting and Drawing, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
2017: Monte Castello Painting and Studio Practice, Umbria Italy
2013- 2015 Associates in Liberal Arts, High Honors, Studio Arts, Art History, Middlesex County College, NJ
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
2021
Estamos Bien: La Trienal 20/21, El Museo del Barrio, New York NY
Shattered Glass, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Contemporary Domesticity, Taymour Grahne, London, UK
Frieze NYC, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Solo Exhibition, Sakhile&Me Gallery, Frankfurt Germany
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2020
“Como Nosotros Somos” New Image Gallery, West Hollywood, CA (two Person -with Tiffany Alfonseca)
“Celebrate Longevity” Superposition Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (two Person- with John Rivas)
2019
“Both at Once” Latchkey Gallery, NY, NY (two-person- with Kevin M. Demery)
“Stateless” Baby Blue Gallery, Chicago, IL (two-person- with John Rivas)
2017
"It Takes All Kind" Studio Oh!, Chicago IL (solo)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020
Art Basel Miami Beach, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Art Basel OVR, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Building Narratives” Monti 8, Latina, Italy
“Figurative Summer” Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Everyday is Sunday” UTA Artist Space, Beverly Hills, CA
“The Cookout: Kinfolk and Other Intimacies” MoCADA, Brooklyn, NY
“One Way Ticket” Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Thy Neighbor” 1-54 Contemporary African Art Far, Latchkey Gallery, New York, NY
“TB2P” Cantica Tabacuru Gallery, New York, NY
“Parallel Realities & Unpopular Truths” Superposition Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“The Living Room Kitchen” The Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY
2019
“Syn-co-pa-tion” Ace Hotel\The Tenth Magazine, Chicago, IL
“Breaching the Margins” Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI
“Both at Once” Latchkey Gallery, New York, NY
“Stateless” Baby Blue Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Remnants of Things Left Behind” Band of Vices, Los Angeles, CA
“Salon!” Rozsa Center for the Performing Art, Houghton, MI
“Don’t Be Scurred: Pathways to Liberation” Hairpin Arts Center, Chicago, IL
“Salon!” Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, Houghton, MI
2018- “XL Catlin Art Prize,” San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
“XL Catlin Art Prize,” Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, IL
“XL Catlin Art Prize,” New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
“The Latin American Contemporary Fine Art Competition” Agora Gallery, New York, NY
“Interiors”, Happy Gallery, Chicago, IL
"The Art of Awareness," Fulton Street Market, Chicago, IL
"A Remembrance of Beauty," Moody Fellowship Hall, Chicago, IL
"SAIC BFA Show," SAIC Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL
"Journey to America," Highland Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
"Black Love Matters," William Hill Gallery, Chicago, IL
"Buy Art Not Vices" NYCH Gallery, Chicago, IL
"Rompiendo Barrera" Carlos and Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery, Chicago, IL
2017
"Black Love Matters", SouthSide Arts Center, Chicago, IL
"Mostradarte" The International Centre for the Arts, Monte Castello di Vibio, Umbria, Italy
"Altering Realities" Fulton Street Collective, Chicago, IL
"Taking Shape" Studio Oh! Chicago, IL
2016
"Understanding Time" Ballroom Projects, Chicago, IL
"ArtBash" Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, IL
2015
The Community Open House & Expo, 50-Year Anniversary Exhibition
2014
Perth Amboy Bi-Annual Exhibition. Perth Amboy, NJ
Annual International Summer Exhibition. Highland Park, NJ
2013
ACT-SO NAACP New Jersey Painting Competition. Newark, NJ
ACT-SO NAACP New Jersey Drawing Competition. Newark, NJ
GRANTS/AWARDS (Grants/Fellowships, Awards/Honors, Residencies, etc.)
2019
Mare Residency, SunSpot Studios with MICA, Baltimore, MD
2018
Odyssey Travel Grant, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2017
John W. Kurtich Foundation Scholarship , School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2016
SAIC Distinguished Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
SAIC Grant, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2015
Art Department Awards for Academic Excellence, Middlesex County College
2013
ACT-SO NAACP New Jersey Silver Medal in Painting
ACT-SO NAACP New Jersey Silver Medal in Drawing
Art Student of the Year, School of North Brunswick
Talks and Panel Discussions
2020
Panel Discussion with Schrezade Garcia and Toy Peralta, “Afro Latinos En Arte” at SVA, New York, NY
2018
Today at Apple, "Modern Meets Classic" Key Note/ Live Art, Chicago, IL
Clips (more may be added)
Uncoiling from an Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix...
EX TERRA BRASILIS
Millions of short-path connections unite creators worldwide by means of the extraordinary mathematics of:
The Small World Phenomenon
—The Integrated Global Creative Economy
Take an artist... from Salvador, Havana, Brooklyn, Cape Town...
Writer, musician, filmmaker, painter, choreographer, architect, academic, fashion designer, chef...
Integrate this artist into a network of other artists around the world.
Our artist tends to within close proximity of all others in the network, in the identical manner in which most human beings are within some six degrees of most others.
The creative universe becomes a creative village in which all have access to all.
Inspired in the sensorial immanence of Borges' transfinites-inspired Alephs.
The Aleph / O Aleph
O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space...
Salvador is our base. If you plan to visit Bahia, there are some things you should probably know and you should first visit:
www.salvadorbahiabrazil.com
Linking to the Matrix from your media (to the Matrix in general / to your Matrix Page from your Instagram) plugs your people in.
https://linktr.ee
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; recorded "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): World's premier klezmer violinist
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
Conceived under a Spiritus Mundi ranging from the quilombos and senzalas of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro to Havana and the provinces of Cuba to the wards of New Orleans to the South Side of Chicago to the sidewalks of Harlem to the townships of South Africa to the villages of Ireland to the Roma camps of France and Belgium to the Vienna of Beethoven to the shtetls of Eastern Europe...*
Sodré
*...in conversation with Raymundo Sodré, who summed up the irony in this sequence by opining for the ages: "Where there's misery, there's music!" Thus A Massa, anthem for the trod-upon folk of Brazil, which blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south until Sodré was silenced, threatened with death and forced into exile...
And thus a platform whereupon all creators tend to accessible proximity to all other creators, irrespective of degree of fame, location, or the censor.
Matrix Ground Zero is the Recôncavo, bewitching and bewitched, contouring the resplendent Bay of All Saints (end of clip below, before credits), absolute center of terrestrial gravity for the disembarkation of enslaved human beings (and for the sublimity these people created), the bay presided over by Brazil's ineffable Black Rome (seat of the Integrated Global Creative Economy* and where Bule Bule is seated below, around the corner from where we built this matrix as an extension of our record shop).
Assis Valente's (of Santo Amaro, Bahia) "Brasil Pandeiro" filmed by Betão Aguiar
Betão Aguiar
("Black Rome" is an appellation per Caetano, via Mãe Aninha of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá.)
*Darius Mans holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT, and lives between Washington D.C. and Salvador da Bahia.
Between 2000 and 2004 he served as the World Bank’s Country Director for Mozambique and Angola. In that capacity, Darius led a team which generated $150 million in annual lending to Mozambique, including support for public private partnerships in infrastructure which catalyzed over $1 billion in private investment.
Darius was an economist with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he worked closely with the U.S. Treasury and the IMF to establish a framework to avoid debt repudiation and to restructure private commercial debt in Brazil and Chile.
He taught Economics at the University of Maryland and was a consultant to KPMG on infrastructure projects in Latin America.
Replete with Brazilian greatness, but we listened to Miles Davis and Jimmy Cliff in there too; visitors are David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR/WXPN
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
Susan Rogers
Alicia Svigals
Julian Lloyd Webber
Kamasi Washington
Clarice Assad
Randy Brecker
Herbie Hancock...
Bule Bule
Caetano Veloso
Darius Mans
Sparrow/Pardal Roberts
RÁDIO MATRIX