Las Carpetas, Christopher Gregory Rivera, 2021, Presented by the Abrons Arts Center as part of La Residencia. Image by Daniel Terna
Abrons and Pública, together with resident artists, develop platforms to support interdisciplinary, transnational collaboration with Puerto Rican and New York-based artists and cultural institutions facing challenges due to the archipelago’s colonial relationship to the United States.
duendita is an artist from Queens, New York. They write and produce their own music, imbuing it with a reverence for their ancestry and faith. With their achy, bass-coated tones and mix of jazz, piano, soul and R&B, duendita’s music is evocative of the complexities and sentimentality of the human experience.
Natalia Viera Salgado is a Puerto Rican curator and curatorial consultant based in New York City. She is also the founder of :Pública Espacio Cultural, an independent art space in Alto del Cabro, Santurce Puerto Rico. Her art historical research focuses on contemporary art in relation to decolonial practices, architecture, social and environmental justice, and new media with a keen interest in hybrid and interdisciplinary projects. She has worked at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, El Museo de Barrio, Art in General, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, and Americas Society. Viera holds a MA in Curatorial Practice from the School of Visual Arts and is currently the curatorial Fellow at the National Academy of Design and curatorial Resident at the Abrons Arts Center.
Leila Mattina Gregory is a Puerto Rican artist/farmer based in Aibonito, Puerto Rico. She is co-founder of Trama a farm space focused primarily to natural dyes and fibers. The farm is a place for research and development of different practices to grow or source natural raw materials for arts and culture. Trama also provides a space for continued education and access to a variety of raw materials to artists and the community. Thus stimulating, preserving, and activating the Puerto Rican textile culture for new generations. Her artwork focuses on recognizing the implications and importance of our material culture as a globalized community against the backdrop of the disappearance of ancestral knowledge throughout the world. Leila’s work has been exhibited at venues including Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (PR), Muestra Nacional de Puerto Rico (PR), FAD: Feria de Arte y Diseño (PR) and Bakehouse Art Complex (Miami) among others. She has a BFA degree in Painting from Escuela de las Artes Plasticas (2014) Since 2017 her work has become intertwined with agriculture and has continued learning from different experiences by visiting different indigenous communities in Guatemala, Perú and México.
Pública Espacio Cultural is a cultural space founded in November 2018 by cultural producer Naíma Rodrígez and independent curator Natalia Viera Salgado. The space is located in the community of Alto del Cabro, one of the most important historic neighborhoods of Santurce, Puerto Rico. One of the major problems on the island currently is the lack of funding and spaces dedicated to serve the community in the cultural and arts sector. In November 2018, Pública: opened up its doors to become a platform for local artists and international artists as a way to strengthen the relationship between Puerto Rico and an international audience.
Pública considers multiplicity as its main strength. Thinking from this principle has allowed us to imagine ways in which the space can provide experiences for the enjoyment of the community such as exhibitions, public programs and community projects. The goal is to create a platform for the investigation and diffusion of contemporary artistic practices that go beyond traditional formats inside and outside the institution, while at the same time providing an accessible space for the community. It is also in our plans the reinforcement of relationships with other institutions not only in the island but internationally.
Las Carpetas, Christopher Gregory Rivera, 2021, Presented by the Abrons Arts Center as part of La Residencia. Image by Daniel Terna
Las Carpetas, Christopher Gregory Rivera, 2021, Presented by the Abrons Arts Center as part of La Residencia. Image by Daniel Terna
La Residencia is a collaborative residency partnership between Abrons Arts Center (New York, NY) and Pública (San Juan, PR), made possible with funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.