BAM's Rudin Family Gallery to Reopen with 'Un Estado De Gracia / A State of Grace'

"Un Estado De Gracia / A State of Grace" is a group exhibition curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah featuring seven New York City-based Latinx and South American artists. All of the artists featured in the exhibition utilize their practice as a forum to expand our notions of home, community, family, nostalgia, consumerism, and the complexity of identity. Each artist employs varying mediums and aesthetic forms including photography by Alicia Grullón and xime izquierdo ugaz; sculptures by Kenny Rivero, Lucia Hierro and Ronny Quevedo; drawing by Chelsea Ramírez; and sound by BEMBONA. The exhibition examines displacement, migration, memory, and resilience-a resilience that has been particularly challenged and amplified in the era of COVID-19-and the journey towards social equity. This exhibition is part of BAM's New York Season.

The investigation at the center of "Un Estado De Gracia / A State of Grace" seeks a deeper understanding of the bi-cultural negotiation that these New Yorkers articulate through their artistic practices. The exhibition presents a unique opportunity for visitors to engage in a dialogue with fellow New Yorkers who create art inspired by their own lived experiences. We witness how these artists are constructing new narratives and visual cartographies reflective of the cultural nuance that shapes their daily lives. Moreover, the exhibition invites the question-what can we learn about ourselves and our society by looking at the world, and the variables that inform our day-to-day from a Latinx and South American perspective?

"As a native New Yorker raised in the Bronx, 'Un Estado De Gracia / A State of Grace' is my attempt to pay homage to the Latinx and South American communities who've educated me and helped shape my view of the world personally and professionally. The exhibition spotlights the tension that many immigrants or children of immigrants encounter between asserting one's own personhood and agency along with considerations of citizenship, identity, and humanity," said BAM Curator at Large, Larry Ossei-Mensah. "It endeavors to center these experiences as a vehicle to unfurl the intersectional lines of inquiry around gender, identity, notions of memory, the contemporary, and navigating racial bias asking-what does a state of grace mean? What does it mean to express yourself in an environment that isn't always hospitable?"

The works featured in the exhibition offer an invitation to a distinctive societal exploration via a Latinx and South American lens. Collectively, the strategies employed by all the artists are unified in their desire to invite the viewer into a deep, but necessary, confrontational discourse. A discourse that creates an opportunity to celebrate the significant cultural contributions of the Latinx and South American creative community to not only New York City, but the world.

For more information visit: BAM.org

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