After month long presentations at galleries in Havana and Santo Domingo, the show will be the 2014 Presidential Art Exhibit at York College (CUNY). A book based on the show will be released on opening night. The traveling exhibit Caribbean Carnival Portraits: The Photography of Mario Picayo and Mariano Hernández featuring a striking collection of masked, painted and decorated faces and bodies from carnivals in the Greater and Lesser Antilles will be unveiled on Thursday the 18th of September at the York College Fine Arts Gallery. Dr. Marcia V. Keizs, president of York College honored the show, and the artists, by granting it the Presidential Art Exhibit distinction.
The Department of Tourism of the United States Virgin Islands, LART (Latino Artists Round Table) and Editorial Campana, publisher of the book based on the show, joined York College as sponsors.
Picayo (Cuban born, New York resident) and Hernández (Dominican Republic) have “chased” carnivals for over a quarter of a century from Cuba to Trinidad & Tobago, and their work has been featured in books, magazines and in numerous individual and collective exhibitions. At the York College exhibit the artists will display images from twenty-five carnivals taken in fifteen Caribbean islands.
The opening reception on Thursday, September 18th from 6 to 8 PM with music, food, performances, book launch, and wall-to-wall carnival photographs will be a beautiful, festive event, according to Dr. Margaret Vendryes, director of the gallery.
The dates for the show, September 18th to October 15th, were selected to include the event in York College’s program of Hispanic Heritage Month celebration activities.
