Gallery hours: Monday -Thursday...9-9, Friday...9-6, Saturday...10-4, Sunday...1-5 (Sept to June)

 

The Bruce S. Kershner Gallery in the Fairfield Public Library will be showing "Figure Them Out/ Imagínelos", the art of 32 Caribbean, Latin American & Latino artists from September 11 through October 31 during library hours.

On Saturday, September 11, there will be a Collector/Artist talk from 4 to 5 p.m. and a reception from 5 to 7 p.m.

The works are from the Benjamin Ortiz Collection by artists from Argentina, Cuba, Spain, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the United States. All of these artists work and live either in their country of origin or in the United States. The most well known is Norwalk printmaker, Antonio Frasconi. The artists have been carefully selected to show a range of different styles from representational to abstract portraits and figurative work and includes etchings, lithographs, silkscreen, woodcuts, sculpture, painting and photography.

Ben Ortiz, the curator, says "I am the first generation in our family to be born outside of Puerto Rico. As a kid growing up in Bridgeport, I went through my own trials and tribulations in figuring out my own cultural and national identity. Who am I.? Am I an American or Puerto Rican or both? Why do I speak Spanish?"

He goes on to state that these crossroads work as language meets culture, music, food, customs, traditions, and the visual arts meet. Collecting art has played a major role in helping him find, develop, understand, redefine and enforce his own cultural and national identity and beliefs. The feelings that he questioned and asked himself, which possibly other Puerto Rican kids from his generation in the 1960s and 70s and even to the present day still ask themselves, have slowly dispersed. "As the time went on, through the wonderful guidance of my parents, aunts and uncles and even my grandparents, I was able to feel comfortable with myself and my heritage."