Persistencia! – Máximo Colón

Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater is proud to present Persistencia! La Lucha Sigue/The Struggle Continues: The Photographs of Máximo Rafael Colón, curated by En Foco, Inc. Colón is prototype of the artist provocateur that has always been in the forefront of social justice and community empowerment. His photographs span over forty years dedicated to the well being of the Puerto Rican and Latino community. The works on view are monuments to human solidarity, struggle, and endurance at their most frontal and intimate. The selections move back and forth in time and place reminding us that every good is the outcome of repetitive, gradual, and loving labor.

Artist Bio: Born 1950 in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Máximo Rafael Colón is a New York based photographer who studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Colón’s photography speaks to his concerns of social justice, activism, and cultural expression which encapsulates a wide range of interest in music, the human condition and making visible the people of our society who are often marginalized through discrimination and inequality. Colón’s work is part of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and has been exhibited in several venues throughout New York, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. In 2015, Colón’s photography was prominently featured in ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, and The Loisaida Center in Manhattan. A number of his photographs form part of the Centro De Estudios Puertorriqueños archives at the City University of New York’s Hunter College and his work has also been exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York, Bronx Documentary Center, New York Cultural Center and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC. He is currently editing My Upside Down World: Deconstructing Photography, a five year digital project encompassing photographs from New York, Puerto Rico, Berlin, Mainz, Paris, Havana, and Toronto. His works can be found in numerous publications, film documentaries, and are part of many private collections.

Artist Statement: “Jim Crow: you opened my eyes, while shattering my idyllic Caribbean slumber. Franz Fanon: you steadied my gaze. Nina Simone: you soothed my soul. Don Pedro Albizu Campos: you lit the flame of resistance. Reverendo Pedro Pietri: you made me cry. Brother Malcolm: you persevered, and love prevailed.”

Artist Talk & Reception: Thursday, January 16, starting 5pm.