Day Dreaming / Soñando despierta, from the portfolio Manifestaciones: Expressions of Dominicanidad in Nueva York

Inscriptions

Signed, dated, and inscribed, in graphite, lower margin left to right: 15/25 Day Dreaming/Soñando Despierta, SCHEREZADE 10

Label

Scherezade García’s print depicts a dreaming female figure at the bottom of image, projecting Dominican island motifs onto the concrete and industrialized spaces of Manhattan. Planting the plantain branch into iconic Central Park, Garcia claims New York City as an “outer borough” of the Dominican Republic (DR). This spectral figure also marks the reconfiguration of DR racial identity, where Dominicans are considered non-Black in neighboring Haiti, but upon entering the US are wedged into the Black/White binary.

Unlike García’s aerial view, the foundational image within Alex Guerrero’s Vista Psicotrópica is a New York cityscape, a black-and-white photograph taken from the artist’s apartment. In this imaginative depiction of Dominican York living, Guerrero superimposes a small blue house surrounded by tall sprouting grasses, accompanied by a raincloud. Although the image is playful, Guerrero’s image of the humility of a Caribbean home disrupts the iconic skyline and subverts the rigidity of New York’s architecture.

These prints were produced through the inaugural project of the Dominican York Proyecto GRÁFICA (DYPG) a project focused on expressions of dominicanidad and the lived experience of diaspora in New York.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ARTH 48.06, LACS 32, Borderlands Art and Theory, Tatiana Reinoza, Spring 2019

First Year Student Enrichment Program, Israel Reyes, Summer 2021

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

LACS 80.02/AAAS 90.01/GOVT 84.06, Identity and Power, Lisa Baldez, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

SART 20/SART 71, Drawing II/Drawing III, Jack Wilson, Fall 2022

Latino Studies 44.01, Latino Roots and Transitions, Thamyris Almeida, Winter 2023

Art History 40.05, Latino Studies 12.01, Print the Revolution, Mary Coffey, Spring 2023

Exhibition History

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–April 11, 2022.

Provenance

Coronado Print Studio, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2019.

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Subjects