Caguama, 2020
Omar Velázquez
An item at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
In this painting, Omar Velázquez reimagines his encounter with a leatherback sea turtle, or caguama, while canoeing in the mangroves near Salinas, Puerto Rico. The surreal sensation Velázquez felt upon seeing the turtle rise out of the water is channeled here through the curious arrangement of landscape, objects, and figures. To the left of the turtle, a gourd-shaped string instrument, the bordonua, defies gravity on the water's surface. On top of it sits a duck, whose body takes the shape of the Caribbean percussion instrument güiro. Initially trained as a printmaker, Velázquez paints from the background out: using an acrylic airbrush, he first creates an atmospheric, brightly colored background. From there, he articulates figures in thick oil impasto and acrylic paint, effectively playing with a sense of dimensionality. Here, depth and perspective combine in a way that gives shape to the complex experiences of diaspora, where memory and history intersect and the familiar collides with the uncanny.
entre horizontes: ART AND ACTIVISM BETWEEN CHICAGO AND PUERTO RICO
An exhibit at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
entre horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico examines the artistic and social justice histories that connect Puerto Rico with Chicago. Featuring works by an intergenerational group of artists with ties to Chicago, the exhibition highlights Puerto Rican artists who address social and political issues through their work, including painters who use printmaking techniques and approaches. The exhibition also centers Chicago as a city that for decades. has championed conversations on Puerto Rican self-determination. Accompanying the artwork on view is a selection of archival materials documenting social movements and community organizations that have advocated for the rights of underrepresented Latine communities. Through historic photographs and ephemera, the exhibition documents stories of anticolonial resistance and transcultural solidarities in Puerto Rican Chicago. The title of the exhibition, entre horizontes (between horizons), draws on another point of connection between these two places. While geographically distinct, the horizon lines over the waters of Lake Michigan and the Caribbean appear as sites of memory and longing to many Puerto Rican Chicagoans. By bridging these two horizons, the exhibition traces correspondences across not only visual art and social justice but also place and identity. entre horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico is curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator, with Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate. The exhibition is designed by SKETCH | Johann Wolfschoon, Panamá.