ARLENE DÁVILA FOR HYPERALLERGIC
"The exhibition is a detailed art historical excavation of work by this foundational Latinx artist that illuminates both his legacy and his timeliness. The exhibition draws richly from Elizabeth Ferrer, who curated the artist’s first solo exhibition in Brooklyn in 2015, at BRIC, and includes a digital study room that makes accessible the works of leading art historians and writers who have commented on the artist’s work for decades. This scholarship establishes the historical significance of Sánchez’s art in ways that should inspire new generations to study it, and major institutions to finally collect it.
It was moving to see works from the 1980s that had never been exhibited, or had not been shown for decades, alongside newer pieces produced just for the exhibition. The result is a compact yet comprehensive display that shows the development of Sánchez’s visual vocabulary alongside his continuous commitment to collage. From painting to photography, Sánchez is a brilliant mixer of mediums; his sophisticated hybrid aesthetic echoes the very condition of being Nuyorican. His works often combine Taino symbols with comic book icons and popular culture references, as well as photographs of the Nuyorican community taken by Sánchez or from his family albums, along with urban landscapes and religious iconography that joins Catholic saints with Santería orishas. Each work speaks to an evolving Puerto Rican diasporic community, past, and present. The result is an exhibition that is classic Juan Sánchez and extremely contemporary in its urban and global concerns."
