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This Skin I'm In: Contemporary Dominican Art from
El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection

1230 Fifth Avenue (at 104th Street)
Thursday, September 28th
8:00pm to 10:00pm

El Museo del Barrio, New York's premier Latino and Latin American cultural institution, will present This Skin I'm In: Contemporary Dominican Art from El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection from September 29, 2006 – January 21, 2007. Organized by Director of Curatorial Programs Deborah Cullen , this exhibition showcases the museum's recent acquisitions of contemporary art, illuminating the first core collection of contemporary work by Dominican artists in any United States museum collection and demonstrating El Museo's first step in its commitment towards building in-depth modern and contemporary holdings of work by Dominican artists.

This grouping of ten diverse and multi-media works -- primarily by New York-based Dominican artists along with some work by artists from the island -- addresses the idea of skin as a metaphor and membrane, mediating between one's inner being and external experience. These cutting-edge works explore the contradictions between isolation and connection, particularly as expressed through the metaphor of an island surrounded by water, as well as both the losses and gains of the migration experience. Other recurring themes within the works are the roles of race, class and gender, and these are echoed by the notion of invention, artifice, and even self-made armors utilized to get through day-to-day life. These artists refer, overtly or subtly, to Dominican history, and to both the celebrated and stereotyped perceptions of Dominicans' contributions to contemporary culture. 
Included works by artists such as Elia Alba, Tony Capellan, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, iliana emilia garcia, Quisqueya Henríquez, Freddy Rodríguez, Scherezade, Julio Váldez and Limber Vilorio.

This Skin I'm In will be presented concurrently with ¡Merengue! Visual Rhythms / Ritmos Visuales, a major exhibition organized by Centro Cultural Eduardo León Jimenes in Santiago , Dominican Republic , of over 50 works exploring the pictorial representation of merengue, the genre of music and dance that, interwoven throughout the nation's history, has come to define Dominican culture and identity. These exhibitions mark the first occasion upon which a museum in the United States will present the 20 th and 21 st century art and culture of both the Dominican Republic and the diaspora, whose largest population resides in New York City .

A panel discussion on the state of contemporary Dominican art, inviting specialists such as Sara Hermann (Centro León, Santiago , DR), E. Carmen Ramos (The Newark Museum) and New York-based Dominican artists Elia Alba, Freddy Rodríguez and Julio Váldez, will be held on November 30 at 6:30 p.m.