Lyle O. Reitzel Contemporary Art Gallery Presents Artist Scherezade Garcia's New Work

On Thursday, February 16th, the Lyle O. Reitzel Contemporary Art Gallery, founded in Santo Domingo in 1995, celebrated the opening of New Yok City-based Dominican artist Scherezade García's new series Memories Afloat with a private reception at its new location in the heart of the Lower East Side in Manhattan.

Notable guests included Scherezade García, gallery owner Lyle O. Reitzel, visual artist Alina Landry, Chief Curator of No Longer Empty Manon Slome, Curator of El Museo del Barrio Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, Eduardo Ayala Fuentes,Tiffany Tendra, Director of CONTEXT Art Miami Julian Navarro, Michael Lovett, Paula Bomer, Eladio Fernandez, Gerard Ellis, Andrew Raible, Rob Porta, Kiki Olmedo, Mike Yanicelli, Robert Dandarov, Abigail Lapin, Suzy del Valle, Gonzalo Casal, Deborah Cullen, Kimberly Leonardo, Ariela Ka, Arnaldo Morales, and Leonardo Cairo.

Link to images: http://bit.ly/2lrdDsk (Credit: Daniela Paiewonsky)

García's Memories Afloat was produced in the summer of 2016 while she was residing in Granada, Spain and engages in that "always" conversation and the endless fascination the artist has had with history. Her work delves into what she calls "the politics of inclusion," playing on her attraction with the first European settlements in the American continent (with its atrocities and beauties), the creation of a new race as part of its multifarious consequences, and the American dream with its many layers, aesthetics and inventions. These paintings on paper are multi-layered and presented in her traditional baroque style. Visually and spiritually lush, the series is an imbedded contradictory history of fleeing, rooting, freedom, enclosure, brutality and beauty.

"Observing and talking to people is the way I collect stories and allow myself to imagine, fabulate and daydream through them," said García. "By witnessing and experiencing places and its people, I compose and recompose, and I develop my visual dictionary."

The work of García has been exhibited worldwide and her most recent credit includes "My Floating World" at the Los Angeles Art Show at MOLAA booth/Relational Undercurrents exhibition. Her work is also included in the Permanent Collection of The Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., El Museo del Barrio in New York City, The Housatonic Museum of Art in Connecticut and El Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo.

About Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery: Lyle O. Reitzel has been operating in the international panorama for over 20 years from its space in Santo Domingo, and during the 2005-2010 period in Wynwood, Miami, participating in prestigious contemporary art fairs, hosting exhibitions in museums, galleries, and institutions around the world, with a select representation of artists of the caliber of Luis Cruz Azaceta, Edouard Duval-Carrié, Ignacio Iturria, José Bedia, José García Cordero, Hulda Guzmán, Raúl Recio, Ray Smith, Gerard Ellis, Víctor Rodriguez and more.

Location: Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery: 139 Eldridge Street New York, NY

Time: Wednesday - Sunday 12:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.

Date: February 16th - March 30th, 2017

Website: www.lyleoreitzel.com

Phone number: (646) 478-8055 / (929) 423-0319 / (305) 510-2833

Artist Talk: March 4th, 2017 5:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.