The Noyes Cultural Arts Center recently unveiled “Herencia,” an exhibit featuring six artists using different mediums to explore the Latino heritage.
“Herencia,” which is Spanish for inheritance, opened Sept. 15 in conjunction with the start of national Hispanic Heritage Month. The date marks the independence of five countries in the early 1800s: Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Mexican independence from Spain occurred the following day, on Sept. 16.
A free public reception was held Sunday afternoon at the center, 927 Noyes St. The exhibit’s open until Nov. 9.
“We actually started talking to artists before identifying the common thread in their work,” said Chie Curley, co-curator of the exhibit.
Curley said the center has displays like “Herencia” somewhat frequently, all tied to the theme of Latino culture. The diversity of mediums – such abaca and amate, which are similar to paper – in this particular exhibit makes it special, she said.
“The artists are drawing from their cultural backgrounds in many different ways,” Curley said. “We have three artists working with natural materials like abaca and amate. Way back in history, amate was soaked and pounded from tree bark – it’s the traditional material.”
Curley is excited to draw a large Hispanic population to the gallery and to continue supporting Evanston’s large population of artists.
“Art is alive and well and growing in Evanston,” Curley said. “The momentum just keeps going. If people come, see, ask and read, they’ll learn a lot.”
Anita Garza-Leverence, one of the six featured artists, debuted her pieces two years ago at her thesis show. A graduate of Columbia College in Chicago, she has an interdisciplinary degree in book and paper arts and handbound materials. Her five large collages of historical photo and text chronicle the lives of five generations of ancestors.
“I wanted to get back in touch with my heritage and attempt to reconnect with my culture,” Garza-Leverence said. “The last panels are from a part of Texas that was still Mexico at the time.”
The exhibit was about family for Garza-Leverence. She joined by her parents as they walked the gallery, and Lucy Gomez, another artist, brought a younger generation along for the event.
“She’s our latest work of art,” Gomez said of her daughter.
Gomez’s work is half ethereal paintings inspired by childhood memories and half photographs, all fueled by appreciation for her Puerto Rican heritage.
“We used to make annual visits to Puerto Rico to clean the family gravestones, and between cleaning and painting I used to wander the cemetery,” Gomez said. “It was fascinating because I was so used to such controlled environments of cemeteries in the States.”
Because “Herencia” is also part of a larger trend – increasing appreciation for Hispanic art – it isn’t just drawing patronage from Evanston residents. Sharon Botte traveled to the center from the South Side of Chicago to view the work of artist Mario Castillo .
“(He’s) amazing -I’m fairly floored,” Botte said. “I’m a huge fan of Latin American art, and we’re finally seeing more of it. It’s taken so much time for it to surface, and so long for people to have a voice.”
Castillo’s work is a mixture of various styles representing pre-Columbian times. According to Curley, he refers to his bright, surrealist style as “perceptualism.”
“It’s designed for you to see different images as you’re looking at different colors,” Curley said.
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