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Máximo Rafael Colón: Storied Lens/BORIMIX 2024

  • Teatro LATEA 107 Suffolk Street New York, NY, 10002 United States (map)

Máximo Rafael Colón: Storied Lens

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 14 @ 6:00 - 9:00 PM
When: November 14, 2024 – January 15, 2025

Where: The Tamayo Gallery in Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente
107 Suffolk Street, NYC

Curators: Mercedes Trelles and Miguel Trelles

Artist: Máximo Rafael Colón

Artist talk: Saturday, November 16 @ 2:00 - 4:00 PM

A conversation between Professor Mercedes Trelles (UPR) and Máximo Rafael Colón @ Teatro LATEA

Join us for the XIXth Edition of BORIMIX: Nuyorican Splendor, celebrating the agency and the trailblazing trajectory of Puerto Ricans in New York.

The BORIMIX Visual Arts Exhibition, Storied Lens, is co-curated by Mercedes Trelles and Miguel Trelles, and will be devoted, for the first time ever, to the work of one artist, Máximo Rafael Colón.  Support for the exhibition provided by LXNY/Historias.

"People are constantly going on about the flag. And that’s a starting point, a way of being proud. But I wish they would identify with the history."  

Máximo Rafael Colón

This selection of photographs from photographer Máximo Rafael Colón’s vast oeuvre demonstrates Colón’s commitment to politics, portraiture, and the “cultural provocateurs”: the people who ignited and kept the flame of Puerto Rican culture in New York through institutions like Taller Boricua, the Nuyorian Poet’s Café and New York’s rich music and festival scene. The selection, from Máximo’s personal archive, also constitutes a love letter to analogue photography and the information rich, uncropped print that relies on the precise moment.

Harking from " la Villa del Capitán Correa",  Arecibo/Puerto Rico, Máximo Rafael Colón moved to New York at a young age.  He started his formal training in the "darkroom arts" at the School of Visual Arts and from the get go a unique trajectory started:  Colón's profound concern with social justice has been portrayed by documentary photographs of sit-ins, the emergence of the Young Lords and the clamor of Latinos demanding equal rights. His images capture a period of upheaval and political ferment reflecting an unwavering commitment  to Puerto Rican Nationalism and the struggle for the liberation of imprisoned Nationalists such as Carlos Feliciano, Andrés Figueroa Cordero, Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda and Irvin Flores Rodríguez. 

Colón's work was featured in the landmark photographic exhibition, Dos Mundos (1973) organized by the Institute of Contemporary Hispanic Art. He has participated in various prestigious exhibitions, among them, !Presente! The Young Lords (2015) at the Bronx Museum, the Museo del Barrio and the Loisaida Art Center, as well as Ida y Vuelta (2017) organized by the Museo de Antropología, Historia y Arte UPR, CitiCien, 100 artistas 100 años del Jones Act (2018) at the Clemente Soto Vélez, Casa Ruth and Taller Boricua, and El sujeto develado (2019) at the Museo de Arte Dr. Pío López Martínez.

Look for updates regarding LATEA’s program of art talks by emerging photographers handpicked by Máximo Rafael Colón including Destiny Mata, Amy Ponce, Mario Rubén Carrión, Maylyn "Zero" Iglesias, and Jon Ferrer

The conversation on Saturday November 16 will be the first art talk of LATEA’s  program, presenting an in-depth conversation between “Storied Lens” co-curator Mercedes Trelles (University of Puerto Rico) and Máximo Rafael Colón.  They will discuss Colón's photo practice, his trajectory, the selection of photographs in “Storied Lens” and upcoming projects.

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November 8

Celebrating the Ancestors of Latino Poetry in New York: A Conversation and Performance

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November 21

Nuyorican Poetry: A Borimix Open Mic Night