Entre Horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico

Sylvia Neil and Daniel Fischel Galleries

Entre Horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico is an interdisciplinary exhibition that seeks to recognize and critically examine the affinities between the social justice movements and the artistic genealogies of the Puerto Rican diaspora between Chicago and Puerto Rico from the 1960s to the present. It will feature painting, sculpture, photography, video, and other mediums by an intergenerational group of artists, alongside documentation of the social movements that advocated for the rights of these underrepresented communities. Anchoring the exhibition is the horizon line that connects Chicago with Puerto Rico, over Lake Michigan and Caribbean waters respectively, which is used as a metaphor to make connections across place and identity, visual art, and social justice.

The exhibition will also trace the emergence and expansion of Puerto Rican anticolonial activism and resistance starting with the Young Lords, which was founded in Chicago in the 1960s by José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez as part of broader movement of social justice groups advocating for civil rights in Chicago and around the country. It will also include documentation of important events and organizations, including the Division Street uprising and the unprecedented activism that founded the Puerto Rican Cultural Center. Entre Horizontes will include historic photographs and other ephemera that tell the story of the anticolonial resistance of the Puerto Rican community in Chicago.

This exhibition is organized by Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator Carla Acevedo-Yates.

Image: Candida Alvarez (b. 1995, Brooklyn, NY; lives in Baroda, MI), Licking a Red Rose, 2020. Acrylic on linen; 80 1/4 × 68 1/8 in. (203.8 × 173 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gift of Katherine S. Schamberg by exchange, 2021.4. Photo: Tom Van Eynde, courtesy the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery.