Renowned International Artists To Display Their Art Throughout the District

East Harlem, NY– In her continuous commitment to support cultural programming in her district, encourage young people to be involved in the arts and strengthen the cultural bridge between New York City and Puerto Rico, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced the second installment of a mural festival in El Barrio/East Harlem and the South Bronx first held in 2013. The project, entitled MonumentArt, is being presented by the La Marqueta Retoña initiative, which has successfully revitalized El Barrio’s historic marketplace with an infusion of cultural and culinary programming.

Eleven internationally-known artists have been selected to join the MonumentArt project taking place in El Barrio and the South Bronx throughout this week. Artists will paint large scale murals on residential buildings and schools across the district. The artists represent countries and places that include the U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America, South Africa and Belgium. José Morales of La Marqueta Retoña and La Respuesta in Santurce, Puerto Rico, partnered with muralist Celso González‎ to produce and curate this year’s festival.

“El Barrio/East Harlem and the South Bronx are both known for their vibrant public and street art,” said Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. “There is great power in the arts and their importance is critical in preserving the historic cultural identity of the neighborhoods I represent. This year, the MonumentArt festival will bring nine walls to life in El Barrio and the South Bronx, celebrating our neighborhoods’ culture, documenting our history and capturing our imagination.”
“We are thrilled to bring the MonumentArt project back to El Barrio for a second time,” said Jose Morales, Director of La Marqueta Retoña. “In 2013, the Los Muros Hablan art festival was a huge success and went a long way in cultivating the rich, beautiful history of East Harlem. This year, we are excited to bring the project to even more spaces in El Barrio and extending it to the South Bronx. We look forward to the final products and thank Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito for the opportunity to complete such a great project in her district once again.”

“El Barrio and the South Bronx are communities that are hubs for multi-cultural diversity, vibrant history, and opportunity, said Celso Gonzalez, Artist and participant of MonumentArt. “As one of the curators of the MonumentArt project, I am excited to continue and promote that legacy with this international art festival. With 11 internationally-recognized artists completing large-scale murals throughout Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s district, we are sure that these pieces will become staples of the community and join the other incredible artwork that can be seen around El Barrio and the South Bronx. We thank the Speaker’s Office, our artists, and all of our partners who have worked collaboratively to ensure the success of this project.”

The MonumentArt project includes a strong youth participation component. Young people will participate in the project throughout the week, as the artists and partner community based organizations help the students learn more about the arts as well as neighborhood history. With murals going up at three schools, artists will be engaging with students in those buildings, speaking with them and inviting them to visit them as the art work is in progress.

“The creation of two murals on a huge unused space on our building is a great gift to both our school community and the broader community that walks up and down Madison Avenue every day,” said Naomi Smith, Principal of Central Park East II.

“We are very excited to partner with our co-located schools to support the creation of this mural,” said Tara Stant, principal of Success Academy Harlem 3. “We place great emphasis on the value of reading and writing, and this mural will be a constant reminder of the doors that literacy opens.”

“We value reading great books above all else. it is wonderful that this mural will recognize an individual from the neighborhood who has made such important contributions to literature, said David Noah, principal of Success Academy Harlem East.”

Additionally, El Museo del Barrio, a partner in this project, will engage in workshops alongside the artists where they will allow the students to work with sidewalk chalk; and Creative Art Works, a community-based organization that engages young people in the arts, will bring young people to collaborate with the artists and serve as apprentices for which they will be paid a stipend.

“Three years ago, the Speaker first introduced us to this concept, an international urban arts festival connecting the Puerto Rican Diaspora from the island to the mainland,” said Jorge Daniel Veneciano, Executive Director, El Museo del Barrio. “El Museo is proud to continue to support the wonderful vision of the Speaker to incorporate art into public spaces around El Barrio and are looking forward to offering art-making workshops to students at the schools where these murals will be erected.”

The selected artists and their work sites are as follows:

• Viajero (New York City): P.S. 102, 113th Street and 2nd Avenue
• El Mac (Los Angeles) and Cero (Puerto Rico): Mosaic Preparatory Academy, Harlem Success Academy 3, Mickey Mantle School, 111th Street and Lexington Avenue
• Faith 47 (South Africa) and Sego (Mexico): P.S. 171 and Central Park East II, 103rd Street and Madison Avenue (two murals)
• Elizam Escobar (Puerto Rico): Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center, 106th Street and Lexington Avenue
• Ever (Argentina): El Barrio’s ArtSpace P.S. 109, 99th Street and 3rd Avenue
• Luis R. Vidal (Puerto Rico): Con Edison, 111th Street and 1st Avenue
• Roa (Belgium): Lexington Gardens, 108th Street and Lexington Avenue
• 2ALAS (Puerto Rico): 138th Street and Park Avenue underpass, Bronx (two murals)

Acacia Network is an institutional partner with the La Marqueta Retoña initiative and provided key logistical and financial support to make this project a reality. Other critical partners on MonumentArt include the New York City Department of Education and all of our participating schools, the New York City Department of Transportation, El Barrio’s Operation Fightback, Artspace Projects, Con Edison and Tahl Propp Equities – all of which provided space for the artists to do their work.

We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the City Council Speaker, Melissa Mark- Viverito in this important initiative,” said Raul Russi, CEO Acacia Network. “We look forward to seeing the beautiful murals around the Bronx and El Barrio. It has been an honor to be part of the La Marqueta Retona initiative and experience the transformation and revitalization that has occurred at La Marqueta thanks to the vision and commitment of the Speaker.”

About the Artists:

El MAC
Born in Los Angeles in 1980, Mac has been creating and studying art independently since childhood. His work had him commissioned to Belgium to paint his interpretations of classic Flemish Primitive paintings at the Groeninge Museum. Mac continues to balance his love of painting large scale public artworks around the world with his meticulous and time consuming creation of indoor works. More: www.elmac.net

SEGO
Born in Mexico City, Sego is a self taught artist who lived for a couple of years in Oaxaca and started drawing animals that lvied in this neighborhood and much of his work has been influenced from living there and still has ties there. His murals have been seen across the globe from the United States, Puerto Rico and Latin America to Cuba and Europe. More: www.segoyovbal.blosgspot.com

EVER
Argentinian street artist Ever paints murals that cushion social criticism in a flurry of bright colors, dreamy, cloudy-like form and whimsical characters. He began his career as a graffiti writer in the streets of Argentina in the 90’s. His compositions are often vibrant in color and he has recently begun to experiment with art insallations, providing commentaries on current events using stuffed animals, ping pong tables and toilets. More:http://eversiempre.com

CERO
Born in Puerto Rico, Celso is a contemporary artist whose work excels in different disciplines such as painting, sculpture, murals, mosaics, architecture and film. For the last 10 years, he has been working on Commissions for the government of Puerto Rico and abroad. He has developed over 100 Public Art Projects and his work is exhibited in monumental sculptural mosaics all over the island and the world. More: www.celsoart.com

VIAJERO
Adrian Daniel Roman aka “Viajero” is a young Puerto Rican Artist born and raised in New York City. Family, culture, history, and LIFE are the inspirations of Viajero’s work. Aged or grainy wood is his current canvas of choice; however he has created pieces using various paper, clay and mixed media. Many of his pieces are in private collections in the United States and Puerto Rico and have been viewed in various galleries and art shows throughout the nation. More: www.viajeroart.com

LUIS VIDAL
Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Luis R. Vidal majored in sociology and photojournalism. Right after graduating, he began working as a photographer for various news outlets and local newspapers. In order to widen his scope on photography and related arts he embarked to Madrid to study film editing. After more than 11 years developing as a professional in Europe, Luis is currently living in Brooklyn, NY. More: www.luisvidal.com

2 ALAS
2Alas is an arts collective comprised of Andrew Antonaccio and Filio Galvez. Known for their black and white linear portraits and colored geometric abstractions, the duo have become strong force for Urban at in Miami. Along with the their street work, Andrew and Filio have gained attention for their smaller studio spaces. In 2015 Galvez and Antonaccio were invited to be part of 12th Biennale of Habana. More: www.facebook.com/2alas

ELIZAM ESCOBAR
Escobar earned his Bachelor Degree in Art from the University of Puerto Rico and continued his studies at the City University of New York, the Brooklyn Museum and the New York Art Students League. He worked as a cartoonist and as a teacher at several public schools and the Art School at EL Museo del Barrio. More:http://mapr.org/en/museum/proa/artist/escobar-elizam

TK FAITH 47
Faith47 is an internationally-acclaimed street and studio-based artist from Cape Town, South Africa. Following an active street art career spanning more than 15 years, her work can now be found in major cities around the world. Using a wide range of media, her approach is explorative and substrate appropriate – from found and rescued objects, to time-layered and history-textured city walls and their accretions, to studio-prepared canvas and wood. Through her work, Faith47 attempts to disarm the strategies of global realpolitik, in order to advance the expression of personal truth. More: www.faith47.com

ROA
ROA is the pseudonym of a graffiti artist from Ghent, Belgium. He has created works on the streets of cities across Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. ROA generally paints wild/urban animals and birds that are native to the area being painted. ROA usually uses a minimal color pallet, such as black, white and red, but also creates works using vibrant colors depicting flesh and/or internal systems within the animals and birds. More: https://www.facebook.com/ROAStreetArt

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