Opened December 9, 2017
With 24 artists from Philadelphia to Brazil and lasting over a year, Nuestro Tema: Llamada y Respuesta (Our Theme: Call and Response), looks at Tallerâs community through a sample of its art collection. The works in the collection are the âCallâ invoked in the title. In turn, Taller invites outside artists to respond to the work as well as encourages the community to comment â the âResponse.â
About the Invited Artists
In his oeuvre, Ernel Martinez investigates the appropriation and interpretation of African culture in Western society. In so doing he aims to widen our understanding of what art is and how contemporary society reads it. In Untitled, he combines African Fetish Art techniques, i.e., the nails and zippers, with the pages of from a book on Renaissance art. With the juxtaposing of the two, the method with historical documents, the artist brings into conversation how âhigh artâ is promoted and taught, with the existence of art from other places. Martinez then creates a work that questions the hegemony of Western Art History in a pluralistic society.
Betsy Z. Casañas work is an autobiographical visual and written composition that combines themes of abuse, abandonment, vulnerability, sexuality, and family. She has overcome many obstacles in her life as a single mother, poet, singer, painter, and teacher and has always been eager to reevaluate herself and her surroundings to learn and grow as an individual and a member of her community.
âBuy From Your Neighborâ project by Anne Harrison and Linda Fernandez. During the summer of 2017, artists Anne Harrison and Linda Fernandez partnered with Norris Square Neighborhood Projectâs weekly farmers market. The âBuy from Your Neighbor Dayâ campaign was created to build awareness of the connection between art and entrepreneurship and engage longtime residents in the Norris Square neighborhood. The campaign culminated at the farm stand with screen printing on small shopping tote bags with the message “Buy From Your Neighbor” and a button making activity with local illustrator and longtime resident Angel Ortiz of Dusk Wing Arts. The âBuy from your Neighborâ project stems from the artistâs on-going work, Hecho en Philly. Hecho encourages people to buy locally made and sourced products from their neighbors to preserve and sustain the character of their community.
Alberto A. Becerra is a painter, muralist, and teaching artist with deep roots in North Philadelphia. He has captured the likeness of the people in the neighborhood and taught in schools all around Philadelphia.
