Joint ventures between arts organizations are nothing new. In fact, it happens more often these days in places as far off as Los Angeles, whose most recent large scale and very ambitious Pacific Standard Time exhibition devoted more than a year to showcasing across multiple venues California’s contribution to the art world. Even our local Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) and Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD) partnered in early 2013 to present Graphic Design: Now in Production. It was so large in scale that it had to be split between their two exhibition spaces just to get the show here.
Now comes a new type of exhibition, Pulso, created here and from KCAD. Pulso is keenly focused on a group in society that is sadly all too often overlooked when discussing contemporary art or receives a very stereotypical attribution: the Latin American artist’s contribution to art.
This exhibition grew so immense over the last year that it has to be exhibited over two gallery spaces -- KCAD’s Fed Gallery and its latest addition to the Ferris State University’s portfolio of properties, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (UICA).
Pulso, curated by Salvador Jiménez Flores, an artist and community arts advocate, sought at the start of this process to create a show that “exemplifies a diverse group of artists who position themselves within the broadest developments of contemporary art and just happen to be of Hispanic descent,” says Flores.
“All over the world, including in the United States, we still identify groups with color assignments, and the residue of colonial labels remains,” says Flores. “The artists in this exhibition might identify themselves with one, many, or none of the labels assigned to them, like Latino, Mestizo, or American. They challenge the clichés surrounding the art of the Americas by exploring a wide range of media and themes.”
This expansive theme and growing list of artists, according to KCAD’s Director of Exhibitions Sarah Joseph, really began to take shape through the assistance of two recent hires, KCAD’s Curator of Exhibitions Michele Bosak and UICA’s Curator Alexander Paschka, who went to work almost immediately to create the balance between the two locations.
According to Flores, for a show of this scale to work, it must be realistic in the scope and spectrum of art it will present, but he cautions that this is by no means a "definitive" Hispanic exhibition since the field of artists is very diverse. This is just a nice start and a fitting way to honor their contribution.
As I review the list of artists, which includes names from our region as well as names from all over the United States and the Americas, Flores has culled together a fine example of the diversity of themes at work as well as never couching the challenges of our cultural preconceptions of what Hispanic contemporary art is or is not.
In addition to a fine example of a show in two very appropriate spaces, Pulso will allow the institutions to create support programming, including artists talks and workshops, as well as other cultural activity that will ultimately connect our local Latino audience -- as well as those who visit this exhibition -- to a much more expansive world than previously on display.
It is impossible for an exhibition to represent the entire spectrum of art that exists in the Americas, let alone alleviate the underrepresentation of Latino art and artists in mainstream US exhibitions. However, the responsibility for exploring and assessing the complexities of Latino art belongs to the institutions whose missions are to educate, challenge and question contemporary art of the United States and the Americas.
Admission: The Concurrent Opening Receptions at KCAD and UICA on October 30 are Free.
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