Esperanza Cortés

Esperanza Cortés’ work is on display at the Art Gallery at Three Rivers Community College. 

“I began the Embroidered Allegories Series after a bus accident in December of 2014, which left me with a broken foot. While recuperating from the accident, I mined the remnants of my recent former life as an Afro Latin dancer and teacher.  I cut the embroidery and lace from my dance ensembles, shawls, and student ensembles. These beautiful personal artifacts were drenched with the history, culture, ritual, music, and dances of the Afro Latin traditions of South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

During the Pandemic, I took 15 unfinished paintings begun during my 2009 residency at Altos De Chavon in the Dominican Republic. Through a metamorphosis which included  the addition of personal embroidery and lace, glass beads and crystals, the painted reliefs were transformed as part of my series Embroidered Allegories.

My mothers side of the family have been bull fighters in Colombia for generations. Women were given the right to bullfight on foot in the arena in 1974. Some of the bullfighters in my family are women, my cousin La Cordobésa was one of the first female Bullfighters in Colombia. This series is imbued by the balletic power and ferocity of the bullfighters movements and the intricate beauty of the suit of lights (Traje De Luces) worn by Bullfighters.

Esperanza Cortés is a Colombian born contemporary multidisciplinary artist based in NYC. Cortés has had solo and group exhibitions in venues including Smack Mellon Gallery, Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, MoMA PS1 and Socrates Sculpture Park, Albright-Knox Gallery, Turchin Center for The Visual Arts, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Art Museum. International exhibitions have included Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Spain and Greece.

Cortés’ awards include: John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Hispanic Society Museum Artist Research Fellowship, BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Engagement Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, Puffin Foundation Grant, New York State Biennial, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Artist Space Exhibition Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts and the Sustained Achievement in the Visual Arts Award.

Cortés’ residencies include: Children’s Museum of Manhattan, McColl Center for Arts + Innovation, Museum of Arts and Design, BRIC Workspace, Joan Mitchell Center, Webb School of Knoxville, Sculpture Space, Fountainhead Residency, Bronx Museum - AIM Program, MoMA PS1 Residency, Socrates Sculpture Park, Abrons Art Center, Longwood Art Project, Altos de Chavon, Can Serrat and Bielska BWA Gallery.

Cortés has designed programs as a museum educator, artist in residence and community artist through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Artist Space, Brooklyn Arts Council, Smack Mellon Gallery, Brooklyn’s Children's Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, Wave Hill, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of Art and The Museum of Art and Design.

Cortés’ work is in private and public collections including the American Embassy in Monterey, Mexico.

http://www.esperanzacortes.com