Selected Works

Adrían Abonce

Colombia

Born in the small town of Tuluá, Colombia, Adrián Abonce has been working as a graphic designer for more than 20 years. In the mid-1990's he moved to the United States and settled in Philadelphia where he continued to hone his skills in art directing and production management at several Spanish and English publications. In the last 7 years, however, Abonce has discovered his true passion: photography. Abonce’s photographic interests vary on a large scale. Stylistically, he has concentrated on the effects of light and shadow, the differences between film and digital, and the importance of natural shots as opposed to altering images with technology.

Susana Amundarain

Venezuela

Susana Amundaraín is a Venezuelan-born painter, scenic designer, librettist and interdisciplinary artist. Over the years she has developed a multifaceted approach that connects various art languages and that defines her interests in the interdisciplinary form. Her paintings lay somewhere between abstraction and representation. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Denver in Colorado, and has also been a Visiting Scholar in Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts in NYU. She is an Art Department faculty member at Chatham University and currently lives in Philadelphia. www.susanaamundarain.com

Daphne Arthur

Venezuela

Daphne Arthur received her MFA from Yale in 2009, and made her solo debut that same year at RARE in Beyond Boundaries. Her works combine painting, sculpture, drawing, collage, and elements of photography to break down archetypal aesthetic barriers, while at the same time knocking down stereotypical perceptions on issues of race, gender, religion, and cultural identity. Daphne blends two dimensional forms with three dimensional figurative casts and paraphernalia to immerse viewers in her work. This decision compels us to confront her deconstruction/destruction of social and cultural paradigms that have gained the status of “truth” at the expense of individual personality, thought, and achievement -- it’s all about getting people to overcome preconceptions so they see and accept each other as individuals.

Henry Bermudez

Venezuela

The iconography in the work of Henry Bermudez is derived from the cultural intersection of pre-Columbian aestheticism combined with Christianity, myths, religions and legends. Steeped in dream imagery, his paintings exhibit an otherworldliness of carefully constructed forms emerging from rich and complex settings. Horses, serpents and allegorical creatures are presented as gracefully powerful striations of muscle and sensuality. He was selected to be the Venezuelan representative for the 1986 Venice Biennale and has been the subject of numerous articles. His work has been placed in many public and private collections throughout Central and North America, including the Museums of Contemporary Art in Caracas, Maracaibo, Merida and Maracay in Venezuela. Since returning to the United States in 2003, Bermudez has been working with the Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia on several major projects and maintains an active studio and exhibition schedule.

Simon Bolivar

Venezuela

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Simón Bolívar arrived in Philadelphia in 1999. A keen photographer since childhood, he was immediately fascinated by the action of “capturing” his subject through the camera lens, and by the creative possibility of being able to share his personal view with the public. If asked why he likes photography, he will simply reply: “I love photography more that I ‘like’ it for many reasons, but let’s start with the most basic: I enjoy certain primary feelings that come about when I’m behind the lens – like I’m a hunter – and the result of that ‘hunting’ is that I’m able to communicate something about my state of mind without words. Then comes my favorite word: ‘evolution’ – in the creative sense, evolution takes place when the photographer starts to create their very own personal scenes, so that now I am able to show you something about my personal thoughts and subjective feelings.” Bolívar has by now developed a keen photojournalism point of view, and he has consciously undertaken its “evolution” without ever surrendering his initial primal instincts as a photographer, he remains very much a “primal” hunter.

S. Damary Burgos

Puerto Rico

As a Puerto Rican artist raised in exile and now a mother of two boys, Burgos is intrigued by human development and the way that we relate to the world around us.From the beginning, drawing and painting are not past times but assure security, continuity and a voice when her tongues tie. A graduate of CAPA in Philadelphia, she acquires her bachelors’ degree from a notorious liberal arts school, Antioch College. Since 1995, painting installations offer a medium that demands interaction and participation from an otherwise passive audience.

Nelson Cabán

Puerto Rico

“Culture, history, and the eternal struggle for social justice are the inspirations of my work and therefore work reflects not only a personal creative journey but representations of social, political and cultural realities of many different peoples, both contemporary and historical. My art has always centered upon social issues and political narratives. It's always been about getting people to rethink the injustices in the world, but more importantly to empower people, to believe in themselves, and to believe that they can do something powerful with their lives.”

María Cristina Eguiluz

Argentina

“The trace, the mark, the record left by man; the evidence of time on the surface of rocks, cave walls or other places where nature and human beings alike decide to imprint their processes and to leave a silent yet eloquent vestige of their existence; any instance of life; a fossil, a plant or a root that manages to hold on to or pierce a surface as proof of the force of nature; these are all triggering elements for the creation of my work. I currently collect branches, seeds, leaves, and anything that allows me to create what I like to consider as small and simple altars of the endless beauty in our planet.”

Bruno García

Venezuela

Bruno García was born in Falcón State, Venezuela, in 1967. Between 1986 and 1992 he studied at the Cristóbal Rojas school of plastic arts in Caracas. In 1991 he studied Teaching Methodology at the Armando Reverón Institute for Superior Studies of Plastic Arts, also in Caracas. Between 1995 and 1996 Bruno participated in several symposiums by the Museo de Bellas Artes  in Caracas. Among his many prizes  are: First Prize in Drawing in the Los Salias Salon; Punto Fijo Atheneum Prize in the Regional Salon of Paraguaná, and the Bronze Medal at the  XIII Beargoread Internacional Salon in Normandy, France.

Micah Gaugh

Panama

Micah Gaugh is the progenitor of Puppet, a band that plays his avant-pop music produced by Arto Lindsay and released on Matthew Herbert's label Accidental Records. Gaugh has collaborated with such musical stalwarts as: Lady Miss Kier from Dee-lite, James Chance, John Zorn, G. Calvin Weston, P-Funk All Stars, Bootsy Collins, Me'shell N'degeocello, Earl Harvin, Earl Turbinton, Jeff Watts, Saul Williams, Billy Bang, Moreno Velloso, Diego Cortéz, Melvin Gibbs, Melvin Van Peebles, James Iha, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Marc Ribot. He appeared in an episode of the series Sex in the City, and in the play An American Book of the Dead* The Game Show by Paul Mullin.

Blanca Gruber

Venezuela

Blanca Gruber is a sculptor and photographer, a producer and director of theater with a specialty in lighting design and silhouette theater, and a producer, director and editor of films, as well as a performer. Characteristic of her style is that image and movement and psychological and emotional impact are emphasized, along with the interplay of theatrical elements and the use of unconventional spaces.

Tlisza Jaurique and Marcus Zilliox

Mexico

Tlisza Jaurique and Marcus Zilliox have worked together since 1995. Marcus graduated from Yale in 2007 with his MFA and Tlisza was the first Mexican woman artist to show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Both artists have annually presented new work at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC as well as New York City since 2006.

Jane Madrigal

Mexico

“I am a wounded healer, Chicana artist and muralist, radical warrior woman, and revolutionary earth mama. My work is a reflection of my values, which embody a deep reverence for indigenous culture, the power of women, and a vision of a better future for the next generations. I create as a way to affirm my culture, connect with my ancestors, educate my community, and honor our history, which would otherwise be lost. My work is rooted in spirit, channeling ancient indigenous imagery, religious iconography, revolutionary struggles, and a community of cultural consciousness. Blending art as knowledge, knowledge as healing, I draw my inspiration from ancestral stories and the struggles and issues affecting my people, who have historically been oppressed. Through my work, I hope to remind us of our original laws of interconnectedness with each other, the earth, and the cosmos so that we can reconnect to the land and our ancestors. As a socially conscious artist, I believe it is my responsibility to articulate the struggles of my people and create environments where reflection, affirmation, and transformation can occur. It is only through a positive self-image and understanding of who we are and where we come from that we can give life the value it deserves, so that we may begin to offer each other the mutual respect and compassion that is going to heal us and the Earth.”

Michelle Marcuse

South Africa

Michelle Marcuse grew up in South Africa during the Apartheid era. Despite the then-legal divisions of white and black people and its fraught political situation, cultural osmosis was inevitable. From the combination of ethnicities, the colonial influences of the British and Boer (Afrikaner) combined with the isolation from other continents, grew an extraordinary sensorial mix, now evident in her work. Around the age of 10, she dreamed the aftermath of a cataclysmic occurrence which left her imagined world in unidentified matter exposed to light and dark shafts within shifting currents. It was only within the past two years that she recognized this phantasy within her images: a concentration of forces existing in peaceful silence. The use of mono-chromaticity is suggestive of a timeless atmosphere with elements that appear veiled, secret, and uncategorized. In effect, they are extracts from a distant level of reality. She arrived in the USA in 1983. Her studio and residence is in Fishtown, Philadelphia.

Paula Meninato

Argentina

Paula Meninato was born on February 9th, 1993 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At a very young age she started showing a remarkable interest in art. At the age of nine she moved to Philadelphia, PA, where she now resides. At age 15, she realized she wanted to dedicate her life to art. The following year she spent a semester as an exchange student in Monterrey, Mexico, where she had the opportunity to take several university level art courses. The experience helped her develop her artistic abilities and allowed her to have a better appreciation of the world and its diverse cultures. Upon returning to Philadelphia, she applied to several art colleges. During this process, she received various merit awards, including a full tuition scholarship from Tyler School of Art in 2011, where she is currently into her first year as an undergraduate.

Doris Nogueira-Rogers

Brazil

Doris Nogueira-Rogers was born in 1951 in Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Attended the School of Fine Arts, Federal University, Rio ( B.F.A. 1973 ) with a degree in Art and Design and Interior Design. Living in the Philadelphia area since 1978, Doris produces bodies of work where multiple possibilities of recurring themes – nature and the environment – are explored in different mediums and techniques. Her works incorporate diverse materials, and range from works on paper to site-specific installations that relate to contemporary issues. Doris’ visual discourse includes the personal and the universal, and is manifested in Neo-Abstract compositions rendered in a spectrum of rich colors and shapes that the artist skillfully reconfigures. Often the lines, shapes, and textures also bear deeper meanings. For instance, the leaf and pod-like designs found in her works allude to the constant destruction of the tropical forests. Her professional experience includes national and international exhibitions, as well as art education through museums, art centers, libraries, and schools.

Carlos Nuñez

Ecuador

“I am producing paintings inspired by certain aspects of the immigrant struggle. Immigrants have been used for cheap labor trying to meet the status quo for many years. My paintings investigate the topics of financial exploitation and human slavery. Within them, many connections are made between the struggle of the working masses caused by the greed of the few. My Latin American roots have given me a strong connection to artists like the Mexican printmakers and muralists Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros. A 'soft edge' style with hard edge truths is what makes their work a constant reminder of past and present struggles. The interlocking geometric shapes of Incan Art are also influential in my work.”

Amalfi Ramirez

Venezuela

Amalfi Ramírez was born in  1951. In 1980, after graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Venezuelan born painter, seeking fresh inspiration for her painting, went abroad for five years - traveling and painting in Africa and Europe. Together with her husband, also a painter, they finally settled in the Tuscan region of Italy before returning to the U.S. in 1985. In 1987, the artist earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, and again went traveling throughout Mexico, Peru and Ecuador. She began teaching in 1990 and in 1994 earned a Masters Degree in Education with honors from Arcadia University. In 2001, she won the J. William Fulbright Scholarship to teach in England for a year. Her family then moved to France, where they remained for four years. In 2010 she received the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. Amalfi’s paintings are a reflection of her travels and her dreams. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of galleries and museums in the Philadelphia region, as well as in Germany, Italy, and France. Her paintings strive to represent invisible aspects of the human condition. She states, “There is much more to this world than the visible. The challenge is to make the invisible, visible”.

Tony Rocco

Colombia

Tony Rocco is an award-winning Latino photographer best known for his compelling portraits of people from his mother’s native Colombia. He has exhibited extensively throughout the United States as well as in Colombia. For the past 12 years Rocco has taught photography to children from marginalized communities in North Philadelphia and Colombia. His latest project, Photography Without Borders, engages his students from Stetson Charter School with those from La Florida, Colombia, in a year-long, Internet-based exchange of photography and culture. Rocco was born and raised in South Philadelphia and currently resides in the Northern Liberties section of the city.

Freddy Rodríguez

Dominican Republic

Freddy Rodríguez was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic in 1945 and he moved to New York City in 1963. He studied painting at The Art Students League and the New School for Social Research, as well as textile design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Rodríguez has served as a panelist for the New York State Council on the Special Arts Program, as well as the Percent for the Arts program. His work was selected as the official United States representation for the IV Cuenca Biennial of Painting in Cuenca, Ecuador. Rodríguez will be profiled in the upcoming UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center’s Monograph titled A Ver: Revisioning Art History, a project devoted to “cultural, aesthetic, and historical contributions of Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other U.S. Latino artists whose work expands traditional notions of American history through a lifelong commitment to cultural diversity, formal experimentation, and community-based exhibition.” He was commissioned by New York City to design the Flight 587 Memorial. In 2011 the Smithsonian American Art Museum purchased three paintings by Rodríguez from 1974.

Marilyn Rodríguez

Puerto Rico

“My name is Marilyn Rodriguez and I am an abstract mixed media Latina artist, often viewed as a surrealist. I have lived in the heart of North Philly for most of my life, and it is from my environment and my community that I take my inspiration. Many of my paintings and drawings are manifested through unconventional materials like paper bags and other found objects. The materials are often chosen to fit within the context of the subjects. My work references lost souls that walk amongst us and the constants flux created by their mental health illness, drug addictions, and social handicaps; they are truly lost souls.These individuals roam the streets with uncertain futures, and become the forgotten people unable to assimilate into their environment and society. My work has a voice and my signature: it is my artist statement, it stands alone. I keep my work alive, honest, true, and vibrant! My work has a great connection to freedom because people that are addicts deal with this every day, 365 days, to be exact. It’s an ongoing battle that they are confronted with. The need to survive and the need to go on. The need to be free, drug free…..'the need to seek freedom!'”

Marta Sanchez

Mexico

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Chicana painter Marta Sanchez is deeply inspired by traditional Mexican folk art expressions. Marta Sanchez is recognized primarily for her ex-voto “retablos” formatted paintings, an offspring of traditional Mexican prayer paintings. Her works on paper are mostly linocuts and monotypes that also follow the social and cultural traditions of Mexican and Chicano/a Art.

Marta's work is part of actor/director Cheech Marin's extensive private collection of Chicano Art. She participated in "Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge" which toured the United States from 2001 to 2006. Marta earned an MFA degree in Painting from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and a BFA in Painting from the University of Texas at Austin. She teaches at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, St. Joseph's University, and the Springside School. She is the cofounder of Cascarones Por La Vida, a grassroots  organization that assist families affected by HIV/AIDS. Marta resides in Philadelphia with her husband John and son Phillip Ignacio.

María Schneider

Spain

A native of Madrid, Spain, Maria Schneider has lived in the Philadelphia area since 1990, where she moved to attend Drexel University. She studied to be a lawyer is Spain and a bank analyst in the United States, moving between fields that did not fulfill her. She started attending art centers in her free time and later taking classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. It was only when she moved to New York City in 1999 that she plunged into art. She attended The Arts Student League of New York from 2000 to 2005 and then moved back to Pennsylvania. She started showing in local galleries and art centers and was selected to be participate in the 2011 Pennsylvania Art of the State as well as ArtPrize 2011.

Jacqueline Unanue

Chile

Jacqueline Unanue was born in Chile. During the early seventies, she studied graphic design at the Universidad de Chile de Valparaíso. At that time she became interested in pre-Columbian art, especially the rock art done in her native country. She met archaeologist Hans Niemeyer, the most important scholar of Chilean rock art, who became her mentor. Unanue traveled extensively through Chile’s desert, doing on-site research in the mountains and cliff areas that contain art that was carved or painted thousands of years ago. She also traveled to Spain to study the pre-historic paintings of the Altamira caves in the Basque Country, which being the home of her paternal ancestors connected her to her roots. Inspired by these archeological records, she created her own graphic language in a book she titled Chilean Rock Art, An Encounter with Primitive Man. Rock art also provided inspiration for her work in graphic art, textile art, and painting. Unanue currently lives in Philadelphia with her husband Ricardo Guajardo, also a designer and graphic artist. They work together on surface and textile designs intended for women's apparel at Raimi Design, their Philadelphia-based studio. She teaches a Children’s Art Program and is currently represented by 3rd Street Gallery in Philadelphia.

Victor Vásquez

Puerto Rico

Víctor Vázquez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Puerto Rico, and continued his graduate education with doctoral level coursework in Education and Comparative Religion at New York University. In 1982, he traveled to India, China and Japan to study art, literature, and the cultural history of these regions. Vázquez studied photography with Jan Jurasek and attended the School of Visual Arts and the Maine Photographic Workshop. He has participated in international photography festivals such as Fotoseptiembre, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico DF; Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Fries Museum, the Netherlands; International Center of Photography, New York, New York, USA; FotoFest, Houston, Texas, USA; International Photo Meeting, Sao Paolo, Brazil; Contemporary Photography, America’s Society, New York, New York, USA; Biennial of Havana, Havana, Cuba; Biennial of Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador; and Documenta, Kassel, Germany. He currently lives in Paris, France and San Juan, Puerto Rico.He divides his time between San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Paris, France.

César Viveros

Mexico

Cesar Viveros Herrera was Born in Tejeria, a small town in Veracruz, Mexico. Viveros moved to Philadelphia more than 15 years ago to find a way to create art in a more consistent way. In addition to implementing a more vibrant palette within the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, he has effectively expanded it by integrating the participation of thousands of community members in the creative process of mural making. He has always taken risks in order to prove that art does not have limits by experimenting with new methods and materials, transforming the way murals can be seen and appreciated. Roof extensions, sculptures, and polychromed high reliefs are just a few of many personal signatures in his public work. His brushstrokes are found all over the region, backed up by the inspiration of everyday citizens. Many of his public murals pay tribute to the everyday heroes of the community as a testimony of the power inherited “from the people for the people”.

Mauro Zamora

Cuba

Mauro Zamora is a Philadelphia-based artist who focuses on the subject of the land through paintings and mixed media installations that concentrate on the politicization of the landscape. His works highlight the delicate balance between our romantic thoughts about the landscape, and more pragmatically, our social, political and environmental need to make changes to the land. Mr. Zamora is the recipient of many awards, including the prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts, as well as a Visual Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He has been included in numerous one man and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad.