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... to reconsider social and historical narratives especially when dealing with the aftermath of Colonialism, raising critical questions about the politics of erasure and exclusion.

ESPERANZA CORTÉS - Artists - FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY

Biography

[lives & works – New York, NY ::: b. 1957 - Bogotá, Columbia]

 

ESPERANZA CORTÉS is a Colombian born multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Cortés has been exhibited nationally in galleries and museums including The Neuberger Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, MoMA PS1, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Mexi-Arte Museum, The Cleveland Art Museum and CSU Galleries at Cleveland University. In the fall of 2019 Cortés will have solo exhibitions at Smack Mellon Gallery and Thomas Hunter Project Space.

 

Internationally, Cortes has also exhibited in Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Spain and Greece. Most recently at the Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece.

 

Cortés recent grants, awards and fellowships include the 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2018 BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, the 2017 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council - Creative Engagement Grant, the 2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation - Painters & Sculptors Grant, the 2013 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE: Art in Embassies Program, and the 2013 Puffin Foundation – Project Grant.


Esperanza’s residencies include the following: 2019 McColl Center for Art + Innovation Residency,  2018 Museum of Arts and Design  -  Artist Studios Residency, 2017 BRIC Workspace Program, 2017 Caldera Residency Program, 2016 Joan Mitchell Center Residency, 2016 Sculpture Space Residency, 2015 Webb School of Knoxville, 2010 The Fountainhead Residency, 2011 Bielska BWA Gallery, Poland, 2009 Altos de Chavon, Dominican Republic.  Early residencies include the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the Bronx Museum of Art.

Cortés’s work is in private and public collections including the American Embassy in Monterey, Mexico.

Curriculum Vitae

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCE INTERVENTIONS

2019
   SONATA OSCURA, Smack Mellon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

           SONATA OSCURA, Thomas Hunter Project Space, Hunter College, CUNY, New York, NY

           CUMBIA Dance Intervention,  McColl Center for Arts + Innovation, Charlotte, NC

           CANTE JONDO, Residency Culmination Exhibition, McColl Center for Arts + Innovation, Charlotte, NC

2018
   LA CUMBIAMBERA - Video Premier BRIC, Brooklyn, NY

           SONATA OSCURA, Galería Del Barrio, New York, NY

           Sonata Oscura - Earth Made Flesh, Jadite Gallery, New York, NY

2017
   OJO, BRIC GALA, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY

           OJO, Caldera Residency, Sisters, OR

2016
   Works in Progress, Sculpture Space, Utica, NY

2015
   Not the Emerald City, Webb School Gallery, Knoxville, TN

           Ojo, Outdoor Community Installation Intervention, Knoxville, TN

           Earth Poem, Outdoor Intergenerational Community Installation, Knoxville, TN

           Whitewashed, House Gallery 1814, Philadelphia, PA

2014
   A Feather in Each Hand, Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, NY, Curator Marcos Dimas

2013   
Entre Sombras - Site of Memory, The Lorenzo Homar Gallery, Taller Puertoriqueño, Philadelphia, PA,
 curator

           Rafael Damast 

2012
   Dollar Daze, Esperanza Cortes and Michael Pribich, Mestizo Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah, curator Jorge Rojas

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019   
Inter/Sectionality: Diaspora Art in the Creole City, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, 
Curators Rosie

           Gordon-Wallace, Washington DC

2018   
Quinceañera, Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah

           DEMISE, CSU Galleries at Cleveland University, Cleveland, OH, curator John Moore

           Allow me to Reintroduce Myself, The Cigar Factory, L.I.C, New York

           Dimensions, Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York, NY

           Smack Mellon Kentucky Derby Party & Art Auction, Smack Mellon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

           THE AMERICAN DREAM: The Latino Experience in America, The Belskie Museum of Art and Science, 
Closter,

           New Jersey, Curator, Dora Espinoza

2017
   DVCAI, The Gallery at South Pointe, Miami, FL, curator Rosie Gordon-Wallace

           UPROOT, Smack Mellon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, curator Gabriel Guzman

           WBAI, Chesterfield Gallery, New York, NY

           Bolero, Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx, NY, curator Juanita Lanzo

           Current Locations, Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

           The Right To Be Human, Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece,
 curator Thalia

           Vrachopoulos

2016   
MUJERES, Artworks Gallery, Trenton, NJ

           Bringing Brooklyn to Norfolk, Gallery 21, Norfolk, VA

           Converging Visions, Medgar Evers College Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

           Errand Into The Maze, Art House Productions, Jersey City, NJ
Work in Progress, Sculpture Space, Utica, NY

2015   
The Sculpture of Food, Bronx River Art Center at Bronx Art Space, Bronx, NY

           Dreams are for Real, Aljira a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ

2014
   Raices de Felicidad, Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, NY

           Vistas Latinas: Archives of a Collection, 1989 - 2014, Hunter College, MFA Campus Gallery, New York, NY

           Latino Prints, Notre Dame University - Latino Studies Gallery, Indiana, IL

           Incubarte, International Art Festival of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

2013   
Illusive Self, Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, NY
POP UP - BOS, 11 Central Ave, Brooklyn, NY

2012
   ART IN ODD PLACES, Pelar El Ojo, Curator - Raquel De Anda, New York, NY

           Migration, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT, curator Rachel Moore
Backlash, Soho 20, New York, NY