The FAR Center for Contemporary Art's Sept. 15-18 art exhibition, “Fuerza: Hispanic Heritage Month Exhibition” showcased work from 10 different Latinx artists.
National Hispanic Heritage Month began Sept. 15 and lasts until Oct. 15. The exhibit had a goal of uplifting Latinx artists and culture through celebration and representation, according to the event’s program.
The exhibition ended with a closing ceremony and artist market Friday night, where guests could dance and enjoy food from Pili’s Party Taco.
The FAR center was created in 2018 with the purpose of fostering the growth of Bloomington’s local art community. They invite artists of various forms to feature their work inside their open room, believing that art creates community through art engagement during their many events.
The first artwork in the exhibit was a cactus sculpture representing a sun-catcher created by artist, Tatum Hernandez, a senior ceramic arts student at Indiana University. She said the large ceramics piece resembles her family’s resilience.
“Cacti grow towards the sun, and they last a long time without water, and they grow in harsh conditions,” Hernandez said. “I knew my family grew up in harsh conditions, and they migrated here from Mexico to get a better life.”
Aby Cortes, another featured artist at the exhibit, was born to immigrant parents in Los Angeles and moved to the Midwest when she was 10. Her collage art focused on evoking both her cultures, with her Mexican roots and the United States as her birth origin, by creating personal narratives within her work that piece her own story together.
The piece she said that was the most meaningful to her was a collage of Mexican women rowing towards a platform full of butterflies and flowers. Cortes said the young girl in the collage’s front reminded her of her 4-year-old daughter, representing her blossoming because of the generations of Mexican immigrants before her.
“I wanted to think of something that’s celebrated and beautiful, and everything she wants was built by the people behind her,” Cortes said. “This is a very sentimental piece to how I feel about my family, my daughter and myself.”
Puerto Rican artist Ricardo Andres is a self-taught painter, pulling from pop art and illustrations from children’s books which showcase the same boxy shapes and bright colors present in his colorful and abstract art. He said he was inspired early on by Eric Carle’s work in the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”
One of his pieces featured at the exhibition depicts the tale “Don Quixote,” a story popular among many Latin communities. Andres’ rendition brought bold outlines, bright colors and the same childish aesthetic common in his work.
“Growing up in Puerto Rico, or frankly anywhere Spanish, there are a lot of depictions of Don Quixote,” Andres said. “So, I thought it would be a lot of fun for a gallery celebrating Hispanic heritage to do my take on that scene.”
Puerto Rican artist Dama Mora is also a painter focusing on colors and abstract. Her art explored an emotional journey of her time undergoing chemotherapy after getting her breast cancer diagnosis in 2020. When she was in chemotherapy, her cat was next to her in bed and continues to be a subject within many of her paintings.
Mora studied Art Education at the University of Arizona and moved to Bloomington in 2022 after her husband became a faculty member at IU. She said she enjoys using complementary colors in her work to create a vibrant yet wistful showcase of her subjects.
“I like it because it makes a contrast, and it makes the colors brighter and more cheerful to me,” Mora said. “When I see those colors, it makes me happy.”
While most paintings were colorful, there were a few that were left bare and drawn in pencil. Mora said this was because she had undergone chemotherapy and was unable to afford the paint. But she also said it was this process of making art that she was able to reach a level of tranquility.
The center’s upcoming exhibit, “A Question of Balance,” will be on view from Nov. 6 lasting through Jan. 30. The exhibit focuses on photographer Elliot Ross looking at 2 different Utah communities, the Navajo Nation and Washington County, examining their connections using water resources.
Artists showcased in “Fuerza,” can be reached out to through the center’s website.
