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America Latina - latina.contemporaryand.com - Exhibitions

America Latina -  latina.contemporaryand.com - Exhibitions

20 October 2023 - 30 September 2024

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo / San Juan, Puerto Rico

Luego de cuatro años de ardua labor investigativa, el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico presenta su nueva exhibición “Puerto Rico Negrx”, primera muestra institucional en el país que presenta a artistas negrxs en un contexto histórico y un diálogo intergeneracional.

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Arte|Diáspora

Arte|Diáspora

La artista nacida en San Juan y criada desde pequeña en Arlington Virginia, Amber Robles-Gordon, está presentando la primera exposición individual en línea, Place of Breath and Birth, en la Galería de Arte de la Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, en Santurce.

Su trabajo artístico representa un retrato de sus recuerdos de niña. Según nos cuenta en entrevista, este momento en la vida de la artista fue muy complejo, no solamente por encontrarse en un nuevo lugar a temprana edad, con una cultura e idioma totalmente diferente a la de San Juan, pero además por el discrimen que la recibió en aquel entonces. Esta exposición es dedicada a esa parte de su vida y su afán por recuperar su herencia.

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“Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism” on Exhibit at American University Museum

“USVI Spiritual, Moko Jumbie: Walk Tall and Heal Forward” Mixed Media on quilt, (back of “USVI Political”) 2021 (Courtesy of Amber Robles-Gordon)

Amber Robles-Gordon’s “Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism” has a dual purpose. It consists of her “Place of Birth and Breath” solo exhibit viewed first in her native Puerto Rico in 2020, and it has evolved into a component exhibit, which is an exploration of the historical underpinnings of U.S. Colonialism.

Robles-Gordon is a mixed media visual artist whose solo exhibit at the American University Museum opened in August and can be viewed Fridays through Sundays, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. until Dec. 12.

What began as a quest, “to heal my five-year-old self: to empower her to fight for herself, her language and her culture,” the exhibition took on “the intersections of language, culture, institutional racism, anti-blackness and their immeasurable impact within the U.S. territories,” said Robles-Gordon.

A native-born Puerto Rican with family from St. Thomas, St. John, Puerto Rico, Tortola and Antigua, Robles-Gordon created a visual discussion of the historical and political plight and resilience of the District of Columbia, where she resides, and the five U.S. territories that her two-sided quilts represent. They embody the artist’s creation of a political study of the territories and on the reverse side, a spiritual and cultural study.

Robles-Gordon’s early love of art and creativity moved her delight with fabrics, quilts and found objects to the discovery that these could and would be her artistic narrative.

A writer uses words to express; my medium of expression is my art, she said. “I use a myriad of materials according to what I’m trying to convey in a particular project or a particular narrative. It’s very essential that I match up with what I’m trying to convey,” Robles-Gorden said.

The decision to dismiss her native language, Spanish, came as a result of the teasing and ridicule Robles-Gordon experienced as a five-year-old kindergartener at her school in Arlington, Virginia, far away from her birthplace of Puerto Rico. She did not look like a Latina girl that was familiar to her classmates, and hence developed the bullying of this little brown-skinned girl.

In time, Robles-Gordon realized the importance of embracing her language and her culture and the need to find ways to heal through her research and employ it through her art as the medium on her journey to healing.

Speaking of her years as an artist, Robles-Gordon’s journey toward healing is what she brings creatively in her discoveries about U.S. Colonialism, “I think that it’s a beginning. There’s not an end to my journey. It’s a part of my journey. I think I’ve done a hell of a job in starting it. I actually feel proud about it in my own life. That feels good,” she said.

Robles-Gordon made the universe know how important this part of her journey is. “I think I’ve done that,” she said.

“Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism” exhibits the component of Robles-Gordon’s body of work containing six quilts embodying the Commonwealth of the District of Columbia, and the five U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. The other component, “Place of Birth and Breath,” is the collage on canvas series created in 2020 and exhibited at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazon, (University of the Sacred Heart) in Puerto Rico.

“Place of Birth and Breath” is Robles-Gordon’s 10 mixed-media collage canvases that are a result of the visit with her mother to Puerto Rico where both women recaptured their roots, one of her childhood home, and the other of her birthplace.


“Isla del Encanto” collage, 18×24, 2020. (Courtesy of Amber Robles-Gordon)

A foundational symbology of the “Birth and Breath” body of work is the rubber tree that grows on the campus of the University of the Sacred Heart, which Robles-Gordon was introduced to while in Puerto Rico. “This tree appeared to be a literal fusion of past, present and future states of creation or sustaining an ecosystem. Throughout the series, are abstracted representations of the rubber tree – an entanglement of strong roots – as an example of its resiliency this tree most recently stood-fast to its native soil while 155 mph winds battered the campus,” Robles-Gordon noted.

Robles-Gordon shares her intricate ideas of how she layered her work depicting and interpreting the transitions of day to night and night to day. She relates to three major ethnic/racial groups – the Taino, the Spaniards and Africans, the stranglehold of the United States and the impact of the Caribbean Sea with its threat of hurricanes, scorching summer heat and lush landscapes.

Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism at American University exhibition closes on Dec. 12. The journey continues. The conversation continues. The healing continues.

See Amber Robles-Gordon’s website here..

Galería de Arte de la Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Presents Place of Breath and Birth, Virtual Exhibition of Amber Robles-Gordon

At Sagrado, the well-being of our community comes first. We continue to monitor the development of events related to the worldwide spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). As a precautionary measure, Sagrado is implementing the practice of social distancing. Therefore, the Art Gallery will remain closed until further notice. Over the years, we have created a community that comes together to appreciate different aesthetic experiences. We want to continue this without putting our visitors at risk. Therefore, we are making this experience available online. Among the new offerings, we share the work of Amber Robles Gordon, who was our visiting artist during the fall semester and, from that experience, has created new works under the title "Place of Breath and Birth".


amber-robles.jpg

Amber Robles-Gordon is a mixed media visual artist. Known for recontextualizing non-traditional materials, their assemblies, large sculptures, installations, and public works of art, to emphasize the essentiality of spirituality and temporality within life. Driven by the need to build her own distinctive path, innovate, and challenge social norms, her artwork is unconventional and unformulated. Their creations are representative of their personal experiences and the paradoxes within the imbalance of male and female energies with our society. Ultimately, the intention is to examine the parallels between how humanity perceives its greatest resources, men, and women versus how we treat our possessions and the environment.

I was chosen to be an academic visiting artist from the Art Gallery, Universidad Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico, (PR) this year. This opportunity meant that at the end of the academic year (April 2020) I was going to exhibit the works created from my experience while visiting Puerto Rico. Due to persistent earthquakes, and the risk they pose to the Sacred community, my exhibition was postponed, later with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, new works produced under the title A Place of Encouragement and Birth moved to a platform online.

Isla del Encanto, 18 x 24, 2020

Isla del Encanto, 18 x 24, 2020

This would be my first opportunity to exhibit in the Caribbean and deepen my relationship with my birthplace, Puerto Rico, Isla del Encanto (the enchanted island). Therefore, I have titled the exhibition, Place of Breath and Birth. The intention of this exhibition is to empower my five-year-old self. To give her the strength to fight for herself and her language. I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and grew up in Arlington, Virginia. My first language was Spanish, but when I was five years old I came home one day from school, and I told my mother: I no longer spoke Spanish. Thereafter, I only responded to my mother who speaks Spanish / English in English.

Elemental: Tierra, Aire, Agua, Fuego, 18 x 24, 2020

Elemental: Tierra, Aire, Agua, Fuego, 18 x 24, 2020

Later, I came to understand that I gave up my Spanish language, a critical part of my cultural identity, in order to "adapt" to a version of myself that could possibly match the prescribed box that others had for a brown-skinned girl like me. At the time, we lived on the US mainland, and we lived in an area where there were few people who looked like me and spoke Spanish. Although over time, the insults stopped; Micro-assaults, callous questions, assumptions, and judgments persisted. Throughout this life, time and time again, I have had to choose to identify with my brown /black color over the other cultural ties that unite other Spanish speakers with their culture.

Tendedero, Comunidad y Energía Eterna, 18 x 24, 202

Tendedero, Comunidad y Energía Eterna, 18 x 24, 202

Aunque, mi narrativa personal será el foco principal de estas obras de arte; Continuaré contextualizando la obra de arte dentro de los hilos políticos, socioeconómicos y ambientales que definen y a menudo se utilizan para controlar, alienar o maltratar a los puertorriqueños en general y a los afro-puertorriqueños en particular. Además, mi obra de arte trata sobre las intersecciones de la feminidad, el patriarcado, el hibridismo y el americanismo. En última instancia, espero que esta narrativa y esta obra de arte den voz a otros que caminan en tonos marrones, que respiran dentro de una forma femenina y que no se ajustan a las normas ... pero son audaces y orgullosos.

Botánica del Amor, Autorreflexión y Espiritualidad, 18 x 24, 2020

Botánica del Amor, Autorreflexión y Espiritualidad, 18 x 24, 2020

The Studio Visit presents Amber Robles-Gordon

The Studio Visit presents Amber Robles-Gordon

One of my favorite parts about working with The Studio Visit is the opportunity to get to know artists and learn more about their practice on a more personal, intimate level. I like to spend a little time before we begin a story to have a few one on one visits as well reading as much background information as possible.
Amber and I had this opportunity before we met at her studio on a warm overcast day to film a story about her life, work and process.

Amber Robles-Gordon is a multimedia visual artist with a joyful, positive, happy vibe. Her strikingly colorful work is a powerful fusion of ethnicity, identity, gender and cultural and social interests. Her childhood also informs her work which was filled with a wide range of challenges and the loving, nurturing support of her mother.

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