PULL QUOTE
... to reconsider social and historical narratives especially when dealing with the aftermath of Colonialism, raising critical questions about the politics of erasure and exclusion.
Biography
[lives & works – New York, NY ::: b. 1957 - Bogotá, Columbia]
ESPERANZA CORTÉS is a Colombian born multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Cortés has been exhibited nationally in galleries and museums including The Neuberger Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, MoMA PS1, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Mexi-Arte Museum, The Cleveland Art Museum and CSU Galleries at Cleveland University. In the fall of 2019 Cortés will have solo exhibitions at Smack Mellon Gallery and Thomas Hunter Project Space.
Internationally, Cortes has also exhibited in Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Spain and Greece. Most recently at the Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Cortés recent grants, awards and fellowships include the 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2018 BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, the 2017 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council - Creative Engagement Grant, the 2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation - Painters & Sculptors Grant, the 2013 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE: Art in Embassies Program, and the 2013 Puffin Foundation – Project Grant.
Esperanza’s residencies include the following: 2019 McColl Center for Art + Innovation Residency, 2018 Museum of Arts and Design - Artist Studios Residency, 2017 BRIC Workspace Program, 2017 Caldera Residency Program, 2016 Joan Mitchell Center Residency, 2016 Sculpture Space Residency, 2015 Webb School of Knoxville, 2010 The Fountainhead Residency, 2011 Bielska BWA Gallery, Poland, 2009 Altos de Chavon, Dominican Republic. Early residencies include the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the Bronx Museum of Art.
Cortés’s work is in private and public collections including the American Embassy in Monterey, Mexico.
Curriculum Vitae
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCE INTERVENTIONS
2019 SONATA OSCURA, Smack Mellon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
SONATA OSCURA, Thomas Hunter Project Space, Hunter College, CUNY, New York, NY
CUMBIA Dance Intervention, McColl Center for Arts + Innovation, Charlotte, NC
CANTE JONDO, Residency Culmination Exhibition, McColl Center for Arts + Innovation, Charlotte, NC
2018 LA CUMBIAMBERA - Video Premier BRIC, Brooklyn, NY
SONATA OSCURA, Galería Del Barrio, New York, NY
Sonata Oscura - Earth Made Flesh, Jadite Gallery, New York, NY
2017 OJO, BRIC GALA, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY
OJO, Caldera Residency, Sisters, OR
2016 Works in Progress, Sculpture Space, Utica, NY
2015 Not the Emerald City, Webb School Gallery, Knoxville, TN
Ojo, Outdoor Community Installation Intervention, Knoxville, TN
Earth Poem, Outdoor Intergenerational Community Installation, Knoxville, TN
Whitewashed, House Gallery 1814, Philadelphia, PA
2014 A Feather in Each Hand, Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, NY, Curator Marcos Dimas
2013 Entre Sombras - Site of Memory, The Lorenzo Homar Gallery, Taller Puertoriqueño, Philadelphia, PA, curator
Rafael Damast
2012 Dollar Daze, Esperanza Cortes and Michael Pribich, Mestizo Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah, curator Jorge Rojas
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 Inter/Sectionality: Diaspora Art in the Creole City, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Curators Rosie
Gordon-Wallace, Washington DC
2018 Quinceañera, Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
DEMISE, CSU Galleries at Cleveland University, Cleveland, OH, curator John Moore
Allow me to Reintroduce Myself, The Cigar Factory, L.I.C, New York
Dimensions, Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York, NY
Smack Mellon Kentucky Derby Party & Art Auction, Smack Mellon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
THE AMERICAN DREAM: The Latino Experience in America, The Belskie Museum of Art and Science, Closter,
New Jersey, Curator, Dora Espinoza
2017 DVCAI, The Gallery at South Pointe, Miami, FL, curator Rosie Gordon-Wallace
UPROOT, Smack Mellon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, curator Gabriel Guzman
WBAI, Chesterfield Gallery, New York, NY
Bolero, Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx, NY, curator Juanita Lanzo
Current Locations, Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
The Right To Be Human, Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece, curator Thalia
Vrachopoulos
2016 MUJERES, Artworks Gallery, Trenton, NJ
Bringing Brooklyn to Norfolk, Gallery 21, Norfolk, VA
Converging Visions, Medgar Evers College Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Errand Into The Maze, Art House Productions, Jersey City, NJ Work in Progress, Sculpture Space, Utica, NY
2015 The Sculpture of Food, Bronx River Art Center at Bronx Art Space, Bronx, NY
Dreams are for Real, Aljira a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ
2014 Raices de Felicidad, Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, NY
Vistas Latinas: Archives of a Collection, 1989 - 2014, Hunter College, MFA Campus Gallery, New York, NY
Latino Prints, Notre Dame University - Latino Studies Gallery, Indiana, IL
Incubarte, International Art Festival of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
2013 Illusive Self, Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, NY POP UP - BOS, 11 Central Ave, Brooklyn, NY
2012 ART IN ODD PLACES, Pelar El Ojo, Curator - Raquel De Anda, New York, NY
Migration, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT, curator Rachel Moore Backlash, Soho 20, New York, NY