We Are You International Project

Background

The Project was initiated in 2005, when Mr. Mario Tapia commissioned Duda Penteado, the Brazilian-born filmmaker, poet, and visual artist, to create an image to promote LCA's Golden Age Awards' gala in New York City. Penteado coined the term "We Are You" as the title for this commissioned work, appearing first as a printed-poster, then a heroic painting, a passionate poem, a splendid theme song, and, now, a major evolving documentary-film (about the nature of Latino life and visual art in the 21st Century). Under Penteado's brilliant direction, Jinsing Production's film-team (Lucy Santiago, Jimmy Santiago, and Robert Rosado) captured within startling incisive intimate scenes the first few interviews with renowned Latino personalities, consisting of significant cultural leaders and artists. These initial conversations are truly engrossing and penetrating exchanges about Latino identity, creativity, immigration and survival...Read More at the official We Are You website...

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Purpose

The "We Are You Project" focuses on contemporary Latino "identity-issues;" particularly -- how Hispanics are redefining their changing roles within the matrix of US-Latinization, representing an irrefutable emerging dynamic socio-cultural paradigm-shift throughout all the Americas. The "We Are You International Project" is the first 21st Century artistic-endeavor to fully recognize US-Latinization as a growing (coast-to-coast) Hispanic cultural phenomenon.

Participating Artists and Poets

Among the over 30 visual artists taking part of the "We Are You International Project" are painters, photographers and sculptors from diverse backgrounds living all across the United States of America. These include Jose Rodeiro, Duda Penteado, Raul Villareal, Jose Acosta, Gerardo Castro, Ricardo Fonseca, Jesus Rivera, Sergio Villamizar, Elizabeth Jimenez Montelongo, Josephine Barreiro, Williams Coronado, Monica S. Camin, Jacqui Casale, Patricio Moreno Toro, Mel Ramos, Ana Rivera, Olga Cruz, Pablo Caviedes, Joe Pena, Hugo Morales, Efren Alvarez, Marta Sanchez, Julio Nazario, Rolando Reyna, Nelson Alvarez, Willie Baez, Hugo X. Bastidas, Lisette Morel, Carlos Chavez, Laura L. Cuevas, Maritza Davila, Rosario D'Rivera, Fernando Goldoni, Roberto Marquez, Raphael Ortiz and myself, Gabriel Navar.

We Are You poets are: Steve Barfield, Alberto Blanco, Alan Brit, Pablo Caviedes, Nilda Cepero, Flavia Cosma, Michael Foldes, Colette Inez, Alex Lima, Carmen D. Lucca, George Nelson-Preston, David Ray, Bina Sarkar Ellias, Silvia Scheibli, Livia Soto, and Carmen Valle. Duda Penteado, Raphael Ortiz and myself, Gabriel Navar, are visual artists as well as "We Are You" poets.

Sample Artwork


Previous Venues

Colorado: UCCS

"We Are You Project: Colorado Exhibition" takes place from September 4 – October 11, 2014. It consists of a Symposium, Artists Talks and a Reception which takes place Saturday, September 13 from 10:00 am to 7:00pm at Campus Gallery of Contemporary Art (GOCA) 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Colorado Springs, CO 80918.


"We Are You" Colorado Announcement

The Symposium is from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm at GOCA 1420 + Centennial Auditorium. Topics addressed include 1. Latino immigration 2. Latinization 3. the current Anti-Latino backlash 4. the rise of Pan-Latino transcultural-diversity, as well as 5. revealing the diverse fusion of Latino identities in the 21st Century, assiduously forging, nurturing, and evolving a "New-Latino" persona armed with an "innovative" aesthetic world-view, which Raul Villarreal has christened, "Neo-Latino."

The Artist Talks takes place from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

The Reception immediately follows the Artist Talks until 7:00 pm.

The exhibit features the works of over 30 artist from around the nation, including many from Colorado.

Colorado Spring Media Coverage

Video is media coverage of "We Are You" by Aisha Morales from Fox21News interviewing Andrea Herrera, UCCS Professor, and Anthony Cordova, UCCS Staff Member.

We Are You: New England Exhibition

Fountain Street Fine Art Gallery in Framingham, Massachusetts (59 Fountain Street, Framingham, MA 01702; near Boston, Massachusetts) is the latest venue for the traveling We Are You exhibition which started in New York, traveled to California and is returning to the East Coast. The exhibition ran from June 19 - August 3, 2014. Poetry Reading took place Sunday, June 22nd from 1 - 4 pm and Documentary Screening took place Wednesday, June 25th at 7 pm at the Amazing Things Art Center located at 160 Hollis St, Framingham, MA 01702.

We Are You Project. " Announcement for the New England Edition"

Joyce Gordon Gallery - Oakland, CA

The "We Are You International Project" made its West Coast debut this Summer at Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland, California (406 14th St, Oakland, California). The Opening Reception for the "We Are You" project coincided with Oakland First Friday on August 2nd, 2013 from 6 - 9 pm. An Artist Talk took place at 7 pm. A Poetry Reading took place on Saturday, August 3rd, 2013 at 2 pm. The exhibition closes on August 31, 2013. If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area this Summer make sure to view the "We Are You International Project" Exhibition to support the arts in the beautiful, socio-culturally rich and diverse, enchanting city of Oakland, California!

This was the first "We Are You" exhibition outside of the New York/New Jersey hub where it originated. Thereafter, the "We Are You" continues on its 6 year international travels.

Wilmer Jennings Gallery - NY City, NY

The Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba presented the Inaugural Exhibition for the "We Are You International Project". Over 400 people attended the opening on March 18, 2012. The well-attended opening was followed by the captivating and provocative Poetry Recital on April 7, 2012. View the poems I read during the Poetry Recital, "A Walk With Carmen" and "Oh, Those Goosebumps (An Ode To Bicultural Blessings)". Read them in my Poetry page.

The closing reception at this venue for the traveling exhibition took place on Cinco De Mayo 2012 (May 5th, 2012), from 3 - 6 pm, at Wilmer Jenning Gallery at Keneleba, NYC, NY.

The events during the closing reception included:
1) A pre-screening of the "We Are You Project International" documentary-film.
2) An Artists' Panel Discussion.
3) The closing celebration of the inaugural "We Are You Project International" Art Exhibit.

Along with the premier of the film, Saturday, May 5's program included a panel discussion about the film moderated by Dr. Carlos Hernandez, consisting of Duda Penteado, Raphael Ortíz, Hugo Bastidas, Raúl Villarreal, Rosario D' Rivera, Carlos Chavez. Both the documentary pre-screening and the panel were part of the "Closing Celebration" of the inaugural exhibit of the We Are You Project International's art show, which fittingly spotlights 35 major Latino contemporary artists working in the USA from coast-to-coast, i.e., José Acosta, Efrén Alvarez, Nelson Alvarez, Willie Báez, Josephine Barreiro, Hugo X. Bastidas, Monica S. Camin, Priscila De Carvalho, Jacqui Casale, Gerardo Castro, Pablo Caviedes, Carlos Chávez, Williams Coronado, Maritza Dávila, Rosario D'Rivera, Fernando Goldoni, Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo, Roberto Márquez, Raphael Montañez Ortíz, Hugo Morales, Lisette Morel, Patricio Moreno-Toro, Gabriel Navar, Julio Nazario, Jimmy Peña, Joe Peña, Duda Penteado, Mel Ramos, Rolando Reyna, Jesús Rivera, José Rodeiro, Francisco Rosas, Marta Sánchez, Sergio Villamizar and Raúl Villarreal. These thirty-five well-known contemporary Hispanic artists represent over-a-dozen trans-cultural pan-Latino Ibero-American heritages, encompassing Mexico, Puerto-Rico, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Spain and Portugal. Most importantly, from the film, we learned that each artist is deeply concerned and troubled about the current state of Latino "Civil Rights".

Arts Guild New Jersey - New Jersey, New Jersey

The Arts Guild New Jersey presented "We Are You Project International" from September 9 - October 4, 2012. At the opening reception Dr. Carlos Hernandez and Mr. Mario Tapia (two of the founders and leaders of the project) spoke about the Project's future and its ground breaking socio-cultural significance for all Latinos.

New Jersey City University, New Jersey, New Jersey

In this venue, the "We Are You Project" had 4 events planned from October 9 - October 30, 2012 including an exhibition; viewing of a documentary directed by artist and filmmaker Duda Penteado and produced by Jinsing Productions; an artist reception; lastly, a Poetry Recital, as part of the closing reception. However, due to Hurricane Sandy, this fourth and final event, had to be cancelled.


More Venues to be Announced

Painting Galleries

Visit my Painting Galleries: navar For over twenty years, image-making for me has been a passion and avenue for exploring experiences, dreams and preoccupations, including issues of our dependence on technology, consumer culture, relationships, spirituality, politics, and the human "theatre". The paintings are arranged into different galleries, grouped, chronologically (the earliest from 1993 and spanning into the present) and "themes", especially when I find myself working in a series of paintings inspired from my life experiences, memories, nostalgia and personal interest, for example multi-generational, cross-cultural, popular consumer-based iconography and imagery, such as Chespirito, the Morton Salt Girl, muppets from Sesame Street, the Mexican Loteria, and Art History Homages.