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Email PageMiguel Luciano 2006
December 7, 2006- January 27, 2007
Reception: December 7, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Miguel Luciano
CUE Art Foundation
511 W 25th St Miguel Luciano drawing from the Manga-Mancha series (2006) |  Miguel Luciano Platano Pride (2006) |
“Luciano critically reconstructs, subverts and establishes new hierarchies, meanings and allegories that redefine the Puerto Rican paradigm.”
– Juan Sánchez
Miguel Luciano’s work addresses the playful and painful exchanges between Puerto Rico and the United States, questioning the efficacy of a colonial relationship that continues to exist today. In his first solo exhibition in New York, the artist reorganizes religious, popular and commercial iconographic imagery into fluctuating new hierarchies, as a means of re-examining the portrayal of Puerto Rican identity in popular culture from a site of resistance.
The over ten recently completed paintings and works on paper on view feature appropriated popular imagery ranging from cereal boxes and children’s books, to vintage consumer product and packaging labels, and contemporary Japanese manga illustrations. By reconfiguring these supposedly benign forms of cultural nostalgia in conceptually provocative ways, he exposes and subverts the messages of racism, demoralization, and alienation buried within their branding. He reinvents the images of our youth, and by telling alternative stories, he challenges the viewer to see them in a new context. In Luciano’s visually arresting compositions, familiar characters are locked into unfamiliar relationships. Tainos (the indigenous people of Puerto Rico) are transformed into cosmic travelers, a normally innocuous Ronald McDonald becomes a violent Conquistador, and generic manga characters, whose strength and superiority are usually referenced by the adoption of Aryan features, turn into superheroes emboldened with special plátano powers. These syncretic depictions are layered with subtle doses of irony that often blur the fine line between humor and rage.
Recent works on view also include selections from the Pure Plantainum project, the artist’s ongoing commemoration of the plátano as both a stereotypical-yet-iconic Puerto Rican and Caribbean symbol. Envisioned as both a celebration and a lament, this series of sculptures and photographs features actual green plantains plated in pure platinum. By emphasizing the pristine exterior, Luciano alludes in part to the reckless pursuit of material pleasure, while subtlety referencing the duality of outward vs. inward character, and the pre-eminence of pride over shame.
In an effort to expand critical consciousness regarding Puerto Rican identity, Luciano challenges the persistence of racial hierarchies and stereotypes as by-products of colonialism. He undermines these constructs by depicting the hybridized nature of contemporary belief systems and in doing so, expands the dialogue to include larger, transnational issues related to commodification of culture and colonial dependency.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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