BRATTLEBORO — New York-based artist Juan Hinojosa, whose work is on view in the exhibition “Paradise City” at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), will lead a storytelling roundtable on the theme of newcomers and immigration at BMAC on Thursday, May 4, at 7 p.m.
Presented in collaboration with Vermont Folklife, the event will begin with a short tour of the exhibition, which features Hinojosa's collaged figures symbolizing travelers from another world. Afterward, visitors will be invited to share their family histories and make mini collages on the theme of “home.”
This in-person event is free, and walk-ins are welcome. Optional registration is available in advance at brattleboromuseum.org.
In his art and in this event, Hinojosa, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Peru, explores what it means to be from a place. Through community engagement and storytelling, Hinojosa aims to reveal the many shared experiences all Americans have.
In a statement accompanying the exhibition, Hinojosa reflects on his experience as the child of immigrants: “Here, the children of immigrants are often the ones caught in the middle, between two cultures, languages, and national identities.” His collaged figures, made of objects he finds in catalogs, on the street, and in the subways of New York City, raise questions about what it means to be an American.
In addition to grappling with American consumerism, Hinojosa's work explores the significance of objects in relation to memory and identity.
Curator Sarah Freeman writes in an essay accompanying the exhibit, “Small sculptures and canvases embellished with buttons, badges, and various trimmings resemble artifacts that Hinojosa's figures might have carried with them on their journeys as tokens and mementos of home. Or perhaps the figures have collected these small objects in their new environments, as they have tried to make sense of their new surroundings and build their new lives.”
Hinojosa received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Parsons School of Design and was awarded residencies at Material for the Arts (New York), Vermont Studio Center, and LMCC (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Governors Island COVID-19 Response Residency program). His work has been featured in The New York Times, Woodside Herald, and Open House New York.