Curatorial Work
ART REVIEW;Around Newark, Many Vantage Points On Modern Life
“A MAZE has developed here, and while Aljira: A Center for Contemporary Art is at its center, the trail begins with the Pepon Osorio installation at the Newark Museum. It then proceeds to Aljira, which is entering its second decade with two group shows, "Modern Life" and "Aljira National I."
It is no great exaggeration to say that at any given moment, an Osorio work is on view somewhere in New Jersey, New York or Connecticut. The example at the Newark Museum is half a bedroom, furnished to reflect preoccupations and aspirations of a Hispanic youth, and half a jail cell, in which the boy's father may or may not be confined. Although without the plastic flowers and religious kitsch that normally characterize the artist's work, the bedroom is nonetheless a tour de force of ornament that ranges from posters, including one of Bruce Lee, to basketballs and a host of fists cast in what appears to be ceramic with metallic finish.
In his quest for ethnic authenticity, Mr. Osorio leaves no stone unturned, no surface uncovered, and he brings to bear not just his own Puerto Rican background but also a knowledge of other Hispanic cultures in the Caribbean. Yet because its contents are new rather than found and assembled with almost mechanical precision, the bedroom seems more like an advertisement for ethnicity: bright, neat and squeaky clean. Claustrophobic viewers may prefer the cell, as Bauhaus as its counterpart is congested.
MODERN Life," which complements the Osorio work, is one of the many roundups of known and lesser-known artists who have made Aljiaround the Caribbean. The Aljira miscellany was organized by Carl E. Hazlewood, the center's curator, and Okwui Enwezor, who writes for Flash Art and other publications while putting out his own: Nka, Journal of Contemporary African Art…”