Athens, Ga. – The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute at the University of Georgia will present its first exhibition on “Reflections of the Latin American Natural Environment,” a national juried exhibition of contemporary art, from April 22 to May 17 in its offices at 290 S. Hull St.
An artists’ reception will be held April 26 from 4-6 p.m. in the UGA Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden behind Baldwin Hall on UGA’s North Campus. The event is free and open to the public.
The exhibition’s focus—on painting, drawing, textile, sculpture and photography—is designed to help the public develop an appreciation for Latin America’s wealth of biological diversity and its variety of land, water and cultural resources.
All artwork will be for sale, with 30 percent of the profits benefiting the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute.
Artists selected for the exhibition include Becky Jaffee, Charles Winstead, Kathy Parker, Lois Correa-Diaz, Waheeda Mumtaz Persaud, William Hudson Temples and Neca Dantas.
Jurors for the exhibition are visual artists Stanley Bermudez and Valerie Aranda, who chose works based on quality, craftsmanship, strength of visual appeal and relation to the artists’ statements on how the work connected to the theme. They looked for pieces that best represented the Latin American natural environment and, to a degree, how humans interacted, changed or influenced the Latin American environment.
“Shows like this one are very important because they demonstrate the rich diversity found in Latin America—diversity of ethnicities, languages and dialects, foods, cultures, flora, fauna and, most of all, natural environments,” Bermudez said.
Bermudez was born in New Orleans to Venezuelan parents, raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and now lives in Athens. He has been a painter for 28 years and an adjunct art instructor at UGA, the University of North Georgia, Texas Tech University and Lone Star College. Aranda is an artist, educator and cultural activist. She is a professor of art at Georgia College and State University where she teaches courses in drawing, painting and community murals.
UGA Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute
LACSI at UGA brings the influences of Latin America and the Caribbean to the state of Georgia and beyond by sponsoring educational activities, artistic performances, interdisciplinary research, training and public service projects. For more information, see www.lacsi.uga.edu.