PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Impractical Spaces Puerto Rico focuses on artist-run spaces active in the island from 2000 to 2020. Our research begins with Galería PL900 at Casa Aboy, founded in 1976 in the historic San Juan district of Miramar, and MSA Experimental (1985-1991) located in Old San Juan. These two influential spaces were the foundation for future generations of DIY art workers producing culture from domestic settings. Galería PL900 was the first exhibition space in the island to promote and showcase artistic photography while MSA would transition from a physical space to online platform for net art, video art, and documentation.

The 2000s saw a boom of alternative spaces in the island. Access to easy communication via the internet, the rise of bilingual cultural bloggers occupying the vacuum left by newspapers downsizing their culture sections, and a new generation of art students entering MFA programs in the USA and the inclusion of contemporary art from Puerto Rico in the art market through European and American art fairs drove new cultural exchanges within the international circuit. This sudden curiosity, and influx of money by the international scene presented a high demand in production. Artist-run spaces flourished, not only in the metropolitan area of San Juan, but in smaller towns and cities. Take for example Galería Yemayá, founded in the western coastal town of Isabela in 2002, and Area: Lugar de Proyectos established in the central mountain range municipality of Caguas. Other artist-run enterprises in the metro area like =Desto and La 15 helped revive the neighborhood of Santurce, which is now recognized around the globe for its urban mural festival of Santurce Es Ley. 

In the last decade, the economic crisis, in addition to recent natural disasters, has drastically changed the regional complexion of arts and culture in the island. After the impact of hurricanes Irma and María in 2017, Puerto Ricans had to adapt to a new challenging lifestyle. Some alternative spaces like El Local in Santurce and El Cuadrado Gris in Barrio Obrero transformed temporarily into cultural resilience  hubs and places where their communities could gather and find basic needs. Although hurricanes temporarily slowed down independent cultural production, Puerto Rico is home to a younger generation of cultural producers who are busy preparing a new wave of artist-run spaces.

Partner Biography

Pitirre Proyectos is a non-profit organization incorporated in 2010 in Puerto Rico to support the artistic community of the Island, a grassroots movement focused on promoting a resilient artist community. Pitirre Proyectos' mission is to empower artists and support their economic growth through exhibitions, workshops, conferences, and research; with a vision to promote a resilient artistic community while educating the public through the arts. In the past ten years, Pitirre Proyectos has created and produced a series of art exhibitions, workshops, conferences, artist talks and publications.

After Hurricane María impacted Puerto Rico on September 2017, Pitirre Proyectos created the fundraising campaign, Post-María Relief, Off the Grid PR, with the purpose of distributing emergency kits with solar powered items for survivors, raising $15,000 and assisting hundreds of families around the island.

Gretchen Ruiz Ramos is a museum specialist, photographer and educator working with the arts community in Puerto Rico. Her career in the arts began in 1998 as a fine-arts photographer and in 2001 co-founded Galería Yemayá, an art gallery and cultural center located in Isabela and later in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico; project that she directed until 2010. That same year, she incorporated Pitirre Proyectos, a private non-profit organization focused on art creation, education, research and on projects that promote economic development for Puerto Rican visual artists.

Pedro Velez  is an artist. Throughout his career, he has employed a wide range of mediums including painting with photography, large-scale collages, printed ephemera, and web-based works. His work as an artist has been discussed in Artforum, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, and Frieze, among others. For 15 years (1999-2014) he collaborated as a culture journalist with publications such as Artnet and Newcity Chicago, and his writing has been published in New Art Examiner, Art F City, Modern Painters and Arte al Día. He was the founder of the notorious blog El Box Score in San Juan.  The artist retired from professional art criticism in 2014.

Links

http://www.pitirreproyectos.com/