Casita Maria presented the solo exhibition Naturaleza Mutable by Bronx-based artist Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación from September 7, 2023 - March 1, 2024. The exhibition featured 18 mixed media paintings and collage artworks fusing imagery from tropical flora, fauna and Puerto Rican popular and pre-colonial arts. 

The exhibition included artworks that visually explore conflicted identity through food and culture while promising that nature or one’s nature is mutable, capable of change. Encarnación’s work is influenced by still-life imagery, particularly the work of Francisco Oller (Puerto Rican, 1833–1917) and Caribbean Art in the Era of Impressionism. With this referent, he illustrates iconic flora and fauna from the lush Puerto Rican landscape to represent cultural pride. In 11 of his works displayed from Serie Bodegones, he juxtaposes this imagery in the foreground with a repetitive pattern of flies in the background which have a dual meaning for the artist. On one hand, flies represent decay and his struggle with the Island’s colonial history. On the other hand, some flies are also pollinators and he sees them as symbols of resilience and optimism, change and possibility. Through his work, Encarnación is a mediator, providing a way to flourish and a path to change.

Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación is a visual artist and educator born and raised in Puerto Rico. Encarnación received a BA in Social Sciences/Forensic Psychology from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, a BA in Painting from CUNY-Herbert H. Lehman College, and a MFA from CUNY-The City College of New York. He is the recipient of multiple fellowships and awards and has exhibited widely in New York City. Encarnación currently works and lives in The Bronx.

Casita Maria presented the solo exhibition Read to A Child, an exploration of home, identity, self-love, and appreciation by Bronx-based and Ghanaian-born artist Tijay Mohammed in the Casita Maria Gallery from March 30, 2023 - August 18, 2023. 

This exhibition, part of Casita Maria’s CelebARTE / Celebrate Yourself program, features 12 large-scale collaged works from the artist’s The Ache for Home series. The work is created by upcycling materials like magazines, newspapers, flyers, and posters to construct detailed portraits of children experiencing everyday life–being read to by a loving father, feeling supported as they create art, or expressing joy as they play with friends and family. 

Mohammed’s work is influenced by Maya Angelou’s writings, “The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” His work explores immigrant stories through his personal experience and through universal notions of immigration. His work focuses on children who straddle both continents, including his own daughter's experience being born in the US and now living in Ghana. He further reflects on the notion of "other" in the United States. 

The positive body image and anti-bullying exhibition Built Like This by Bronx-bred Chicana Illustrator Daisy Ruiz. The exhibition features 27 large scale comic book pages on view in the Casita Maria Gallery. Built Like This is written and illustrated by Daisy Ruiz and edited by Jamila Rowser. The narrative follows the life of Gordita, a young girl being bullied and body shamed at school, which causes low self-esteem. But through the support of her friends and guidance counselor, she is “learning to love who she is.” 

Daisy Ruiz, better known online as @Draizys, is a Bronx-bred Illustrator,  Founder and Creative Director of award-winning compilation zine Deadass Tho  NYC, and a one-third of Women of Color art Collective Spicy Mango Comics. Her  illustrations take inspiration from her 5 year-long Scene phase, her East Coast Chicana upbringing, and everyday NYC living, to name a few. Built Like This will be released separately in fall 2022 through Black Josei Press.

June - September 2020 (Virtual Exhibition)

May 26-August 19, 2022

Bronx Faces is a collaborative community art project that pairs the stories and experiences of Bronx natives with a personalized mixed media portrait. This information was gathered through an open call with a fixed selection of questions for Bronx natives of varying backgrounds and generations about one’s experience in the borough. The open call was closed after 100 participants submitted to the project.

In the open call, Bronxites were asked:

1. Name/Birth Year/Neighborhood

2. What memory stands out the most from living in the Bronx?

3. What’s the best food spot in the Bronx?  

4. Describe your favorite order

5. What do you want people to know about your specific neighborhood?

6. What do you want people to know about the Bronx?

7. What did you do for fun growing up?

8. What is your favorite local spot?

The interview answers are paired with a mixed media portrait of the interviewed Bronxite for a complete 'Bronx Face.'  

This is a project by a Bronx native for Bronx natives. Bronx Faces is incredibly personal storytelling. It documents a multitude of Bronx experiences through the contextual differences and intersections in time, neighborhood, race, age, and culture. The responses are unedited, thoughtful, difficult, honest, sweet, raw, and funny. This project allows Bronx natives to document their own histories through an unfiltered tongue.

Love and Resilience celebrates the collaboration between Casita Maria and six-time Grammy award winner Arturo O’Farrill that resulted in the formation of the nine-piece ensemble BronX BandA.  Love and Resilience, the band’s new album and namesake of the exhibition, features 12 original compositions, 8 of which are inspired by the oral histories of Bronx cultural icons. Oral Historian Berta Jottar and Arturo O’Farrill collected life stories from jazz pianists Bertha Hope and Valerie Capers, Executive Director of En Foco Bill Aguado, tres player Nelson Gonzalez, folklorist Elena Martinez, and DJ Grandwizzard Theodore inventor of the scratch and the needle drop, transforming their memories into original jazz compositions.

April 19 - September 17, 2021

Graffitera: We Are Here was a two-person exhibition celebrating women in graffiti featuring the self portraits and art of letters by Olga Correa, a Casita Maria alum, and textile collages by Missy “MRS” Caz. Through their work these Bronx based artists express their identities and play with gender expectations using repetitive visual rhythms on canvas and quilts, bringing a permanence to a temporal art form.

Image: Collage Quilt #1 - Front, 2020 42" x 49.5" 

By: Missy "MRS" Caz

Exhibition Dates: October 8, 2020 - April 1, 2021

Images:

Left: Rodríguez Calero, Hijra, 2016. Acrollage painting on canvas, 48” x 36”

Right: Layqa Nuna Yawar, Studio II, 2020. Oil on paper, 18” x 24”

December 5, 2019  - February 28, 2020

Casita Maria Center For Arts & Education in partnership with Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. is proud to present Garifuna Intangible Heritage. This two person exhibition is part of the ¡CelebrARTE! / Celebrate Yourself 2020 winter season and features brightly colored oil and acrylic paintings along with digital prints by self taught Garifuna artists Pen Cayetano from Belize and South Carolina based artist Isidra Sabio. The artists share Garifuna cultural expressions that have been passed down from one generation to another which contributes to giving the Garifuna people a sense of identity and continuity. 

Garifuna Intangible Heritage honors the 18th anniversary of the proclamation of the Garifuna Language, Music, and Dance as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on May 18th, 2001 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). According to UNESCO, while fragile, intangible cultural heritage is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization. An understanding of the intangible cultural heritage of different communities helps with intercultural dialogue, and encourages mutual respect for other ways of life. 

 “The Casita Maria Gallery celebrates cultural pride through the transformative power of the arts featuring local, national and international artists whose work reflects and honors the vibrant communities of Hunts Point and the South Bronx.”

-Gail Heidel, Director of Creative Arts Programs, Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education

Image: Garifuna Village, Electronic illustration, 24 x 18”, 2014"

September 3 - November 15, 2019

A three person multimedia exhibition celebrating black womanhood by New York based artists Timothy Okamura, Jessica Spence, and Nichole Washington.  The title honors soul singer Aretha Franklin’s feminist anthem “Respect”, adpated from Otis Redding’s original, made famous in 1967. Collectively the artwork in the exhibition calls for respecting oneself and others by pairing positive written messages like “Love Yourself”, “Do You Baby Girl”, “Trust Your Dopeness”, and “I Love Your Hair” with visuals such as the loving care of an older woman braiding the hair of a young girl. These affirmations or “transmissions,” as dubbed by Okamura, provides a powerful counter narrative to the belief system that darker skin tone and kinky/curly hair are less attractive.

Each artist celebrates Black womanhood in a signature style. Okamura’s work features a unique method of painting – one that combines an essentially ‘realist’ approach to the figure with collage, spray paint and mixed media. He will include both new work created specifically for Casita Maria and giclee prints from his Begin Transmission and Urban Portraits series. The new work is based on photographs taken in spring 2019 of four Casita Maria after school youth program participants. Gallery attendees are invited to “tag” the canvas with their name or a positive statement to contribute to the exhibition. 

Jessica Spence’s acrylic paintings depict topics related to her life, specifically black womanhood, and societal beauty ideals. Her current body of work focuses on the beauty and versatility of Black hair. 

Nichole Washington uses photography and paint to construct works that are bold and imaginative. Her art is an exploration of feminine strength, identity and spirituality. In her most recent works Washington creates unique symbols that are used as a secret form of communication. Washington’s strong use of design, layered with her symbols and expressive brush strokes create a multidimensional space that allows room for nuance. She hopes to persuade viewers to look beyond the surface and to have a transformational experience with the work.

May 24 to August 16, 2019

Casita Maria Center For Arts & Education and Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Jr. present the South Bronx Culture Trail Festival 2019 retroACTIVO. As part of this annual Festival, we honor and celebrate community through Simpson Street Stories, a group exhibition featuring artwork by: BG183 Tats Cru, Chen Carrasco, Abigail Montes, William Sarokin, Benny Bonilla interviewed by Nicolás Dumit Estévez and Luis Lara Malvacías. Each artists’ contribution to the show reflects their relationship to the neighborhood as a son, daughter, or father of Simpson Street or as a Casita Maria alum. Historical and present day stories will be shared through video, archival and contemporary photography, painting, mixed media, and ephemera. A companion exhibition, They Will Remember Us, will hang in the Young Artist Gallery. The show features a photojournalistic journey of Simpson Street expressed through street photography, portraiture, and landscape created by Casita Maria middle school program participants.

For the exhibition, artists were invited to share their unique stories and relationship to the neighborhood each through a different artform. Nicolás Dumit Estévez and Luis Lara Malvacías will present an excerpted interview they conducted with Casita Maria alum and percussionist Benny Bonilla in 2015. The interview was conducted when they were Artists in Residence at Casita Maria. In the interview Bonilla, born the same year Casita Maria was founded in 1934, lovingly recounts his experience attending Casita’s after school program in 1944 when it was located in El Barrio. He shares how he learned at Casita to be compassionate and get along with children from different cultural backgrounds. Life lessons that he carried with him as his family moved to an apartment located at 1061 Simpson Street in the Bronx by 1946. This apartment happened to be located up the block from what was originally an orthodox jewish school and later became the new Bronx home of Casita Maria at 928 Simpson Street in 1961. Bonilla went on to become a well respected musician playing with Pete Rodriguez and others and a city employee working for the NYC Parks Department. 

December 13, 2018 - March 9, 2019

We Have Iré: Afro-Cuban in the United States, conceived by Cuban-American writer-performer Paul S. Flores and co-produced with Puerto Rican filmmaker and photographer 

Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, is an interactive, multi-disciplinary event that highlights the experiences of Afro-Cuban and Cuban-American artists as they seek to define their voices in the United States, finding success through hard work and “iré”.

Paul S. Flores is particularly excited to share his story of investigating his personal connection to Cuba, the place where his grandmother was raised. This deep dive into themes of trans-nationality and citizenship comes at a crucial time in contemporary history.

The exhibition features the photography and art of Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi.

The exhibition began with a multi-media, bi-lingual theater project produced in partnership with Pregones Theater and directed by Rosalba Rolón. The project depicts the journeys of four artists through their chosen art forms, including Paul S. Flores’ spoken word and theater, Yosvany Terry’s live jazz music, Ramon Ramos Alayo’s modern dance, and DJ Leydis’ hip-hop beats. Throughout the show, video illustrating these stories, produced by Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, is projected on the stage. 

According to Flores, “This unique piece of docu-theater highlights the complex discourse around Cuban-American political identity and the blessings (iré) as well as curses (osogbo) found in individual immigration stories, plus the triumph of establishing one’s voice in a new country.”

In partnership with Pregones Theater

September 13 – November 21, 2018

Casita Maria Center For Arts & Education in partnership with The Consulate General of Mexico in New York are proud to present Forgotten by Mexico City based artist Jorge Tellaeche. 

The exhibition will include a collection of ink drawings and colorful small acrylic paintings and installation filled with organic forms that become totems, characters and alebrijes (mystical Mexican creatures) that reference pop culture and world social issues. 

EQUIPO: An art workshop to empower youth

This workshop was conducted on Saturday, September 15, 2018, 10-11:30 AM. Participants learned  about Tellaeche’s ideas and artistic process.

The workshop served to empower young people through art making, reminding them they are unique and have the power to create. 

The workshop was divided into four parts: 

• Consciousness and Sharing
• Music and Individuality
• Decision Making
• Creativity and Problem Solving

Through the exhibition and the workshop, the artist will explore how as a people we have forgotten the importance of worth in our word and honor. Tellaeche feels that “becoming complacent with the times we have turned into a society of broken promises. In a time of apathetic fake news that pushes us to not care, we forget we are humans with rights and that we need each other. This show talks about the desire to reach abundance in love and apathy, remembering where we all come from.”