By: Denise Valdez-Alvarez
OMAHA, Neb – The Office of Latino/Latin American Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is celebrating the 10th anniversary of ArteLatinX, a biennial art exhibition showcasing work from artists across the Great Plains in the Omaha community.
This year’s exhibition, “Aquí estamos y no nos vamos,” is taking place at the Latino Museum on South 25th Street. Founded in 2015, the exhibition is free to the public and provides a space to highlight Latinx and Latin American artists and artwork that are often invisible in mainstream media.
According to the Diversity of artists in major U.S. museums study in 2019, only 2.8% of the individual artists displayed in the 18 museums studied identified as Hispanic or Latinx.
Ana Diaz-Orozco, community engagement coordinator for the Office of Latino/Latin American Studies, said Lourdes Gouveia, Ph.D., one of the founders of ArteLatinX, was exploring the newly built Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center when she came across a Latino art piece in the garage.
Questions such as, “Why don’t we see Latino art, and when we do, why do we see it in spaces that people don’t often visit?” sparked the idea of ArteLatinX, Diaz-Orozco said.
In addition to the lack of Latino art, museums often are not accessible to Spanish speakers.
“Sometimes the Latino community can feel out of place attending either gallery spaces, museum spaces, and they feel like that’s maybe not necessarily a place for them. But ArteLatinX is trying to deconstruct that and showcase that [you can] bring your family, bring your little baby brother that is 1-year-old, bring your grandma that’s 90 plus, and that’s what we saw at our opening reception,” Diaz-Orozco said.
For some Latino families, ArteLatinX is the first exhibition they experience and starts their appreciation for Latino art.
“We’re trying to be that bridge in getting our community into those spaces that they might not feel comfortable with, but then that they can appreciate and continuously attend and feel comfortable,” Diaz-Orozco said.
At the opening ceremony Sept. 18, people from the community gathered to look at the beautiful art pieces created by local artists and artists from neighboring states.
Mixed-media artist Lis Gonzáles, a senior from Wayne State College, is exhibiting her work in Omaha for the first time. Gonzáles was born and raised in Chile and traveled frequently to the U.S. beginning at age seven.
Her artwork shows themes of homesickness, nature, memories, and cultural identity. Some of the imagery she uses includes birds and paper planes to represent her frequent travel between Chile and the U.S. at a young age.
For Gonzáles, sadness and memories spark inspiration for her future projects.
“I usually keep photos of Chile, and I draw a lot of inspiration from them. Sometimes, if I’m feeling sad, I look at them and tell myself, ‘I could either be sad, or I could make art and not be sad,’” Gonzáles said in Spanish.
Gonzáles’ artwork might stem from her life experiences and identities, but her loose brush stroke technique captures a feeling or memory rather than looking at a photograph.
“This way anyone can think ‘I have a place that looks like this, or a memory, or a feeling similar to this,’” Gonzáles said in Spanish.
As ArteLatinX continues to grow, Diaz-Orozco has a vision for the exhibition.
“We always have people interested from outside of our region that want to submit [artwork] or even people from other countries in Latin America that would like to submit their work. So, I think in a perfect world, we would be able to reach them,” Diaz-Orozco said.
ArteLatinX runs through Oct. 16.
In partnership with ArteLatinX, a floral workshop with Astrid Lopez Herrera will take place Oct. 8 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Herrera Bouquets, 2352 Cornhusker Road, Bellevue, Nebraska.
Clover 24 will host a talk and tour and will take place Oct. 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. at 2200 S. 24th St. in Omaha.
All events are free and open to the public. Visit elmuseolatino.org for exhibition hours and unomaha.edu/ollas for more information and to RSVP for the upcoming events.
