In Cierra La Puerta Y El Techo Se Abre (Close The Door And The Roof Opens), artist Devin Osorio creates paintings inspired by Hindu, Los Misterios (aka Dominican Voodoo), and Catholic mythology and iconography to reflect upon their complicated relationship with their community of Washington Heights and their father in an attempt to empathize with their villains and begin to mend childhood traumas. This series of meditations allow Devin to reveal the connectivity between the world around them and how they’ve been affected by it internally. 

Words from the artist on the exhibition:

After nearly completing an entire bottle of gin and a pack of Newports with my dear friend, Ashe, I tearily ruminated about my most recent visit to my block, 175th Street between St.Nicholas and Audubon Ave. I unraveled as I described the hyperventilation and distress I felt walking through the block that raised me - darting directly to the entrance of my building, dropping a piece of chocolate that I carried with me as a libation for my deceased mother, and running directly to the A train. My heart pumping with adrenaline and my face hot as I suppressed my tears. “Why did walking through your block result in such negative responses?” asked Ashe in a less direct manner. Unsure of how to answer that question I blurted that I felt overly watched, reminiscing of times in which I was harassed in the streets for my effeminate dress and once being cornered by two boys that I grew up with mocking my homosexuality and hurling sexual jokes that were disguised as passes to me. 

This visit to 175th Street came a week after a visit to my therapist in which we came to the understanding that for the past two years I had been villanizing entities that did not deserve such titles as a result of feeling too overwhelmed to deal with the actual issues at hand - my childhood trauma. In my subconscious, my lack of control in certain sections of my experience meant that I was a victim of the terrible activities of others. My faulty mind convinced me that I was In need of isolation and respite rather than confrontation and empathizing.

Nearing the end of my drunken and tobacco smoke-filled conversation with Ashe, I came to the conclusion that I needed to show empathy to my “monsters,” attempt to sit at the table with them, and begin to understand who they are. This series of works is just that. I sit with my monster: the traumas of my past, the individuals of my present, and in doing so, I attempt to allow myself to fall in love with them. Throughout this work, I became interested in the Poppy Playtime computer game characters, Huggy Wuggy, Kissy Missy, and Mommy Long Legs. Characters in a diabolical game in which toys that have been abused through scientific experimentation retaliate by killing others. This game was paralleled with the Pixar film, Monster Inc. in which a young girl grows to love the monster that hides in her closet. Closing the gap between predator and prey,  leaving love and empathy in its place. 

Throughout the production of this work, I found deep inspiration in the ways that Tetsuya Ishida was able to mysticize mundane experiences in order to start a dialogue.  The ways in which John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres fearlessly include their community in the creation process, often gifting valuable artwork back to the community. The gentle ways in which Augusta Savage interprets her community and in my opinion, very similarly,  the ways in which Aaron Douglas seems to whisper with a sense of profoundness through his work. 

Additionally, I also listened to nearly the entirety of Modern Love by The New York Times' Anna Martin, Love Letters by the Boston Globe’s columnist Meredith Goldstein, and most importantly, I was constantly listening to and singing in the shower Milly Quezada and Los Vecinos’ Entre Tu Cuerpo Y El Mio (Between Your Body and Mine). Beyond putting me into an emotional bag and left yearning for romantic relationships I’ve never had, I witnessed a plethora of relationships that all resemble versions of love. Some were toxic and others blissful but all involve vulnerability and realizing that in order to foster community one must place themselves in spaces of high risk in order to receive an abundance of reward. 

Overall this show is an act of growth and act of love. I am beyond honored to have been given a solo showcase at a world-renowned art fair during one of the world's largest art weeks. I want to use this opportunity to place myself in a space of high risk by ruminating through my traumas alongside the viewer and in doing so introduce an empathetic and authentic representation of my community and self. 

Who Am I But A Heights Kid is an exhibition of paintings, installation, and works on paper as a means of both self-introduction and self-examination. The works investigate moments of elation and trauma in my life, and they contain the array of complex emotions I hold for Washington Heights. The paintings and works on paper employ a folk art structure to fuse ritual and personal history. Tinges of Magical Realism operate within the works, as I revisit the games, stories, and nursery rhymes of my youth, and soars in and out of landscapes within the works.

Words from the artist on the exhibition:

Throughout this work, I fell in love with the ways in which Betye Saar organizes and reflectively combines objects such as one does with pen ink and a journal page. Henri Rousseau’s insanely active imagination and fearlessness to articulate allowed him to travel the globe never stepping foot out of France, and the ways in which Pepin Osorio is able to create work that makes me feel at home and question those exact notions. When I was a child, I came across Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach and for the first time saw my community and myself depicted in something important - a book, thus making me feel as though I was important as well. Ever since I began creating work that was dedicated to my neighborhood I’ve hoped to make Ringgold proud and, if lucky, make someone else feel as I did when I stumbled upon her book and devoured its beautiful and joy inducing contents. Overall this show is an act of growth and an act of love. Throughout this process, I’ve learned about the material, the process of painting, and how to modify my daily acts in order to be my best self during my studio time. This show will be the first time I showcase large-scale works on paper, which is now a practice that I’ve learned to love. The texture and the absorbency of the painted paper remind me of frescos and make me feel as though I am painting a mural rather than on a piece of paper taped to the wall. Connecting me to an art history that I truly admire and am grateful that it’s venerated deeply in Mexican soil and its diaspora.

Charlie James Gallery is pleased to present Delicadeza Óptica: Cada Vez Que te Hablo Estamos Cocinando, featuring the work of Devin Osorio and Joaquín Stacey-Calle, curated by Ever Velasquez. Both artists play with ideas of presence and absence, alternately revealing and concealing details that speak to their interest in history, community, and care. Both use imagery from the natural world, calling upon complex histories of growth, healing, and decay. Distinct in vision and execution, these two bodies of work together offer intimate glimpses into unique and singular worlds conjured within the space of the paintings.

Osorio draws upon the Dominican culture and folklore that formed an integral part of their Washington Heights upbringing. They tell personal narratives by inserting their own likeness into compositions infused with magical realism, relating complex histories in moving, fantastical scenes that are grounded in experience and memory. Soy Arbol do Muchos Frutos powerfully accomplishes this transmutation between one’s physical form and one’s communal and ancestral heritage. The central figure, a self-portrait, stares straight out at the viewer, palms up as if to receive heavenly gifts. A lush tree sprouts from their center and grows both pineapples and cherries – three-dimensional ceramic objects that have been affixed to the canvas. The idea of hybridity recurs in Osorio’s work, teasing out the complexities of being the child of immigrants and the ways that a new land can nurture this hybrid sense of self.

Stacey-Calle’s lyrical Controlled decay (intimacy of strangers) series employs anonymous bodies, their images often cropped or partially withheld, in spare paintings that merge figuration and abstraction. His compositional sense is a poetic dance of revelation and obscuration, one born of a fascination with the naturally occurring growth patterns of lichens and the natural world’s various processes of decay. He pays particular attention to shadow, in that all deeper colors have been removed from view, leaving behind pale, mysterious landscapes that feel like they are the remnants of a slowly decomposing surface.

Both Osorio and Stacey-Calle play with scale. Bodies commingle with outsized flora in Stacey-Calle’s paintings; they are dwarfed by clusters of fruits and fanned tropical leaves, or perhaps floating through the microscopic world of algae and fungi. Likewise, Osorio positions figures, plants, and architecture on equal footing in works such as Medicina de Amor. This painting on woven palm – a new medium for Osorio – is an ode to care and healing, using the meticulous preparation of homebrewed teas as a manifestation of familial love. The curving Hudson River, towering apartment buildings, and lush riverside hilltops support the dancing couples of a Washington Heights block party but also the sink and burners of a humble kitchen, merging interior and exterior and collapsing multiple points of view.

Osorio continues this theme of healing through libation in three paintings in the shape of small, beaded pouches traditionally meant to hold blessings or spells. Each embodies a particular healing concoction, tea, or cocktail that is meant to sustain a loved one. The image of the Dominican figure Santa Marta la Dominadora has been embroidered onto the pouch and recurs elsewhere across this body of work wielding a snake and riding a turtle. She is the Catholicized reincarnation of Mami Wata, her dual nature an embodiment of colonialism’s legacy in the Caribbean. Stacey-Calle focuses on the healing nature of remembrance and forgetting, the essential holding close and letting go of details and histories. Of course, knowledge that is recorded and that which is omitted from history has a political weight, one deeply tied to the colonialist project. Stacey-Calle’s tender paintings seem to reach back into memory via a dreamspace of forgotten details, suggesting that the way forward may necessitate a looking back.  

“Design in nature is but a concatenation of accidents, culled by natural selection until the result is so beautiful or effective as to seem a miracle of purpose. It has become much harder, in the past century, to tell where the garden leaves off and pure nature begins.” - Michael Pollan, Botany of Desire.

Swivel’s alluring group show “Botany of Desire” explores how certain plants have evolved to gratify human desires - specifically for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, control, and healing  - and, in turn, how plant species have used man to meet their own benefit. Given that plants are immobile, they have learned to be the ultimate chemist in order to further their reproduction.

The exhibition draws its inspiration from a book of the same title by Michael Pollan, which questions the idea that people are the sole drivers of domestication. Weaving threads from personal histories, the artists of this exhibition share critical representations of flora and vegetation intertwined with lived experiences and family histories. The artists explore overlapping desires of beauty, sweetness, intoxication, control, and healing through a diverse array of works.

In lieu of reducing botany to the background, these artists collectively acknowledge the intelligence and agency of plant life, unearthing radical compassion through depictions of intimate and reciprocal relationships. Given the growing global climate crisis, resituating our relationship with plants as willing evolutionary partners rather than as pawns is a necessary paradigm shift. 

Participating Artists:

Caroline Absher, Lindsay Adams, Camilla Alberti, Hangama Amiri, Bhasha Chakrabarti, Chitra Ganesh, Shyama Golden, Alison Kudlow, Alicia Reyes McNamara, Isabella Mellado,  Bianca Nemelc, Hilda Palafox, Luján Pérez Hernández, Kelly Shami, Ivana Štulić, Abhishek Tuiwala, Khari Turner, Miko Veldkamp, Letha Wilson.

Participating Artists:

Meg Aubrey, Danielle Blanding, Angela Burson, Denise Carson, Stephanie Cobb, Marcus Dunn, Jenna Hauser, Kassidy Keenehan, Crystal Marshall, Holly Mathews, Tyler Mitchell, Ayana Ross, Caomin Xie, and devin osorio

Participating Artists:

Kirk Henriques, Estelle Maisonett, Joiri Minaya, Renzo Ortega, Na’Ye Perez, Asser Saint-Val, maria ‘lulu’ varona, ana maria velasco, robert visani, and devin osorio

En vivo y a todo color! (Live and in color) is a colloquial term used in Latin American media sources to report live news from a direct location. For this show, the curators intended to expose the wide spectrum of Latin American Contemporary Art, featuring a plethora of artists born in Latin America but currently residing far away from “home”. 

Through storytelling, the artists found a way to report their individual backgrounds despite and perhaps because they’ve distanced themselves from the homeland. All of them talk about their experiences by portraying mundane moments of celebration, introspection, and occasional displacement, which is a present emotion shared amongst the diaspora. The show looks to shine a light on those personal stories, collectively redefining Latin American imagery, purposely stepping away from stereotypes and cliches, to portray a more authentic depiction of reality. 

For this exhibition, Artist Giorgio Ermes Celin and Curator Antonio DelValle Lago, have invited nine Latin American artists, many of them exhibiting in London for the first time, with the purpose of redefining the conversation around diverse identities. Pairing together artists who live in different regions around the world such as Belgium, Spain, the U.S.A, Germany, and Mexico but have carried their identity through their art after relocating. 

Each of these incredibly talented artists is ready to show and has been showing that the Latin American experience is full of color and rich in culture regardless of where we are in the world.

Participating Artists:

JUAN ARANGO PALACIOS, C.B HOYO, DOUGLAS CANTOR, CARLOS DAVILA RINALDI, LARISSA DE JÉSUS NEGRÓN, DODI ESPINOSA, MARIA MONEGRO, ROSSANA ROMERO, And Devin Osorio

Estamos en Todas Menos Misa is a Spanish colloquialism that translates literally to “we’re up to everything but mass” which is generally used to describe someone that prefers to occupy their time doing everything besides what they should; typically used to describe hoodlums, procrastinators, and overall lazy and/or individuals whose priorities are misaligned. Although they may resemble those individuals at times, visual artists Christian Rodriguez and Devin Osorio reveal otherwise. With the “mass” pun being very much intended, they present a reflection upon those they have lost, meditate upon the parameters of humanity, and extend their uses of space. Presenting the paraphrase as a vehicle of curiosity and inclusion rather than judgment. The artists touch upon cultural representation, self-preservation, their LatinX experience, ritualism, and grief through paintings on canvas, images printed on vinyl, framed photographs, and an interactive altar. 

To further perpetuate the colloquialism, they have also organized the presentation space to be activated with educational activities. With the help of NoMAA and the Dominican Writers Association, free workshops with limited seats are being offered and Sabroso Projects has organized an artist-led panel discussion that will be held in the space as a way to directly engage with the community. Participants will have the ability to interact with the work in an intimate way and treat the space as more than a showcase but a visit to mass. Art functions as the divine, the creators and workshop leaders as the clergy, and the participants as the practitioners. 

Participating Artists:

Christian Rodriguez And Devin Osorio

Reckoning with our childhood is one the most important steps in moving forward into adulthood. The peoples and places, traditions and mental spaces that defined our youth engrain themselves in us, becoming our home. A house is a physical space, but a home is an idea. With this in mind, the exhibition space mimics environments where participating artists discovered a sense of home. From pastoral settings such as living rooms and kitchens, to scenes that mimic the natural and manmade landmarks of each artist’s motherland, artworks will be presented in the very habitats that inspired their creation. 

As recent SALT Alumni and young artists at the beginning of their professional careers, this exhibition aims to capture that moment of “emergence” from childhood to adulthood. Through their work, participating artists will negotiate how their roots and early experiences will define their artistry, and in turn, themselves. 

As SALT’s mission is to “engage, inspire, and empower youth from underserved, predominantly immigrant communities in New York City…” many artists’ work investigates the cultural practices and physical attributes of their motherland. While many of the exhibition’s artists hold roots in Latin America, African and Indian cultures are also explored. 

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Aranxza Lopez, Bronks, Christian Rodriguez, Joel Bautista, Kedwien Valdez, Malike Sidibe, Nora Molina, Robbie Ginsberg, Stella Estrella, Stephanie Ayala, and Swati Barua, And Devin Osorio

Displayed inside the former domestic setting of Wave Hill House, The Nature of Family Portraits looks to artists who expand on traditions of the family portrait. While each artist’s approach is distinct and personal, the exhibited works all reference and rely upon depictions of nature, flora and landscapes to complement and complicate our understanding of how family relationships and lineage can be represented.

In some cases, fruits and vegetables recall intimate moments shared during meals or link back to culinary traditions passed down through family. By rendering landscapes, both distant and nearby, artists reflect on how stories of migration or displacement influence their understanding of the family unit, particularly when access to the land that holds ancestral or cultural history is limited but not forgotten.

To further expand the notions of kinship, artists use surrealistic depictions of nature and people to reflect both personal and collective imaginings. In examining how themes of home, social histories, displacement and imagination are depicted within contemporary examples of family portraits, the exhibition reflects a myriad of relationships that constitute the family today, including the nuclear family, diasporic and ancestral lineages and chosen families within self-made communities.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Destiny Belgrave, Sean-Kierre Lyons, Devin Osorio, Maia Cruz Palileo

Blue Door Gallery organized its first group exhibition. Situated in the Hollywood Hills, Gwen O'Neil and Tommy May transformed their studio into an independent exhibition space as a means to showcase emerging to mid-career artists and build a cohesive community. 

By organizing a group of artists whose work May admires, he seeks to create a conversation that goes beyond abstraction and figuration. The presentation focuses on nature, its role within the artist's environment, and how that translates into painting.  

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Nick aguayo, Anthony gelfand, brianna lance, gwen o’neil, w.c. Richardson, And Devin Osorio

Calderón is pleased to present Pa’l Patio, a group exhibition curated by visual artist Tiffany Alfonseca. Pa’l Patio features seven contemporary artists including Raelis Vasquez, José Morbán, Delvin Lugo, Kenny Rivero, Diego Espaillat, Bony Ramirez, and Devin Osorio. The exhibition is Alfonseca’s second in an ongoing effort to explore the evolving cultural identity of the Dominican and Caribbean diaspora and its members’ connection with the geographic location of their forefathers. Through portraiture and references to history, culture, and politics, the works in the exhibition tell stories that reflect each artist’s unique and sometimes complex connection with the Dominican Republic.

Pa’l Patio is a Spanish colloquialism which translates literally to “to the yard” but is generally used to indicate going home - where “home” could be the place where one lives or the homeland that one feels connected to through family or cultural heritage.

“The exhibition brings together a group of male artists from the Dominican Republic and gathers their experiences with Dominican culture through the lens of masculinity. Each artist in the show has their own individual perspectives with DR culture and this presentation touches upon sexuality, fluidity, masculinity, culture practices, and political views.”

— Tiffany Alfonseca

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Raelis Vasquez, José Morbán, Delvin Lugo, Kenny Rivero, Diego Espaillat Bony Ramirez, And Devin Osorio

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

amadeo morelos, austin eddy, brooklynn johnson, enrique minjares padilla, michelle sitton, paulina freifield, And Devin Osorio

Presenting “STILL AROUND: HERE” an exhibition highlighting eight artists who were based in New York City for the duration and peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The works included are an examination of everyday life in a suddenly halted city that usually, as the epicenter of the world, never sleeps.

With many fleeing the city and those who remained being confined to their homes – an eerie silence only broken by the sound of ambulance sirens became the deafening soundtrack to the overall shared experience amongst all New Yorkers who stayed. This exhibition aims to place a spotlight on the artist who remained in a desolate, nearly dystopian city and the resiliency that becomes them in the process of this experience.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Julie severino, bryan fernandez, cyle warner, leonardo ilianov, amy bravo, monica hernandez, maria de los angeles rodriguez jimenez, krista louise smith, And Devin Osorio

Showcase of artist from Washington Heights in garden located in Dyckman.

a few PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

lisbeth checo, ruben dario ramirez, Devin Osorio, and etc.

In collaboration with Hudson River Park, NYC SALT is excited to present the work by our alumni who participated in our emerging artist program this past year. They capture vibrant, dynamic communities in their own distinct voice, inviting you on a visual journey, revealing the cultural consciousness of the world that surrounds them. This outdoor exhibition celebrates and showcases their fascination for discovery, play, and documenting visual histories.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Nora Molina, MALIKE SIDIBE, GRACE MCNALLY, EMERAUDE DORCELLY, RUBEN DARIO RAMIREZ, Daniel Martinez, Christian Rodriguez, Ayman Siam, A-NMBR, ANDREW MOROCHO, Alexis Fuchs, And Devin Osorio