The dynamism experienced by Dominican art in recent years is on display in the new IDB Cultural Center exhibit, titled Inside and Out: Recent Trends in the arts of the Dominican Republic. The show displays the work of eight artists, four living in the Dominican Republic and the other four abroad.
The artists Polibio Díaz, Gerard Ellis, Mónica Ferreras, Radhamés Mejía, Fausto Ortiz, Inés Tolentino, Julio Valdez, and Limber Vilorio are distinguished by their continual searching and avant-garde language through their creativity, their inquiries, and their experimental temperament.
The exhibit addresses issues of originality, innovation, displacement, and identity, among others, and allows for a glance at recent developments in Dominican art, influenced by the synergy created by other artists living abroad, as well the references gleaned from the international art market.
Inside and Out does not necessarily relate exclusively to the physical or geographical displacement. Sara Herman, former director of the Museum of Modern Art of Santo Domingo and currently Visual Arts Advisor for the Eduardo León Jimenes Cultural Center in the City of Santiago de los Caballeros, and essay contributor to the catalogue of the exhibit as well, states that the exhibition approaches these two ideas "from a variety of perspectives." Her essay is provocatively titled "Eight Ways of Seeing, Eight Ways of Entering and Leaving."
A total of 28 art works, including paintings, drawings, prints, photography and video are showcased in the exhibit. Marianne de Tolentino, curator and president of the Dominican Association of Art Critics, does not hesitate to point out that the "Dominican Republic is, along with Cuba, Puerto Rico and Haiti, the most prolific country in regard to modern and contemporary artists," of all the islands of the Caribbean.
The exhibition will run from August 25 to November 7, 2008. A full-color catalogue in English and Spanish will be available to the public.
Additional information:
The Art Gallery, located at 1300 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., is open five days a week, Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The nearest Metro station is Metro Center (13th Street exit). All the events are free of charge.
For more information about the IDB Cultural Center and its programs, please call (202) 623-3774.