Photograph courtesy of Contrapunto
In 2008, Venezuelan artist Carlos Solís appeared round metro Atlanta and located an absence of Latin American artwork. He reached out on-line to a different native Venezuelan artist who he thought may share his imaginative and prescient to create and lift consciousness of Latin American artwork collectively. Over the subsequent decade and a half, up to date artists got here collectively generally known as contrapunto.
The group remained anonymous for a number of years. In 2011, then-member Stanley Bermudez proposed contrapunto, the Spanish phrase for “counterpoint”. A musical time period for mixing complementary tones, it’s apt to picture particular person artists working collectively.
“Our aim for contrapunto is to vary minds and break stereotypes—not simply present artwork,” Solis says. “We, Latin Individuals, are the most important minority in america. However now we have some work to do within the industrial world.”
The composition has modified through the years; At the moment, members come from Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua. Kinds vary from summary to surreal to sensible and artists make use of all kinds of supplies. For his latest oil work unconscious natureFor instance, Pedro Fuertes created textured swipes utilizing a windshield wiper blade. Artists all agree that their each day lives present loads of inspiration. Portrait of Nicaraguan artist Melvin Toledo Within the sea of my thoughts Depicting his younger son, whereas Solis’s portray the primary time A surreal picture of the small Venezuelan city of La Puerta, the place he met his spouse.
With solely seven members, Solis says, Contrapunto has purposefully stayed small. He wished to verify he chosen the proper artists, not just for their dedication and high quality of artwork, but additionally for his or her character. “I wished individuals who care about who they’re as individuals,” he says. “People who find themselves easy-going and have a very good humorousness, however are additionally skilled and have a very good work ethic.”
On the RobertKent Gallery in Marietta on a latest Saturday morning, a number of contrapunto artists gathered to share their tales, protecting all the pieces from life in america in a large van to the group’s latest highway journey to Allentown, Pennsylvania. “We’re a household: we journey, now we have dinner, we go to galleries,” says Solis. “Twice a yr, now we have a proper assembly, however we’d like ‘me’ time to proceed creating and networking.”
This yr, Contrapunto exhibited works collectively on the Oglethorpe College Museum of Artwork and Gallery 100. They often present in smaller type, as Toledo did this spring at Gainesville’s Quinlan Visible Arts Heart, with fellow Contrapunto member Colombian artist Catalina Gomez-Beuth. This November, starting with the First Friday Artwork Stroll, your entire crew will mount a bunch present at Robertkent, together with their latest member, sculptor Carolina Rojas.
Toledo says becoming a member of Contrapunto has broadened her creative horizons and boosted her confidence. Skilled on the Nationwide Faculty of Wonderful Arts in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Toledo works primarily in oil, graphite, and lithographic ink. In 2018, a self-portrait she exhibited on the Museum of Up to date Artwork in Georgia caught the attention of Solis, who later invited Toledo to hitch Contrapunto.
“Contrapunto has been actually implausible,” Toledo stated. “After I joined the group, it opened up venues I would dreamed about, just like the Cobb Museum in Marietta, the place I am excited to have my first solo museum present.”
As Solis sees it, Contrapunto helps Atlanta embrace its inventive range. “We wish to be open to a number of cultures and totally different backgrounds,” he says. “That is the way you grow to be a greater individual.”
This text appeared in our September 2024 challenge.
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