Jenkins Johnson Projects, New York, is pleased to present De Lo Mío, a group exhibition curated by artist (and Spring 2021 featured artist) Tiffany Alfonseca, featuring works by Winter 2021 featured artist Bianca Nemelc, Joiri Minaya, Monica Hernandez, Uzumaki Cepeda, and Veronica Fernandez. De Lo Mío brings together a focused selection of works by an emerging group of women artists with varying relationships to their Dominican heritage. Originating from Alfonseca’s ongoing interest in her generation’s evolving connections to a motherland, De Lo Mío envisions identity not as a definable set of associations but rather as a spectrum through which multiple personal and collective pasts as well as lived experiences come to forge how people exist.
The artists included in this exhibition assemble a constellation of positions—each sited at differing distances from a shared culture—that challenge the notion that geography alone bonds people. Instead, each artist puts forth a unique perspective that push back against a history of art that thirsts for cohesive but oversimplified narratives. Intended to be a spirited dialogue between the work of artists who don’t see the world the same, rather than as a friendly sharing of common opinions, De Lo Mío is an introduction to a host of future projects Alfonseca is developing with the intention to expand art histories of the Caribbean.
While each artist brings their own voice to the exhibition, their work does intersect, at times, along some difficult but necessary questions—like how does one pay tribute to Dominican visual culture without reinforcing stereotypes forged by institutions and popular culture? or how do we remain connected to our roots beyond immediate generations? or how do AfroLatinx lives find solidarity with African-American ones while not dismissing the meaningful specificities of their Latinidad? De Lo Mío will not pretend to provide answers to these questions but hopes to ignite a much belated public conversations about these issues.