Zara Yost (New City Art) writes, “With fewer galleries there’s more breadth and opportunity for fluidity and a focus on the artists and their work. There’s still a lot to see at Expo, so here’s a short list of booths you don’t want to miss.” She offers an insightful review of Pablo Delano’s work, presented by Embajada (San Juan) at Focus Booth #235—see below. As an example of one of the “incredible works on display,” she also mentions “Late Night Deli Run,” by Dominican American artist Lucia Hierro (represented by Marc Straus Gallery, New York, in Galleries Booth #222).
Embajada, San Juan
Focus Booth #235
In the Focus section of Expo Chicago, curated by Katie A. Pfohl, San Juan gallery Embajada has works by Pablo Delano, a seventy-two-year-old artist born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His work centers around documenting the history and conflicts of Caribbean and Latino communities. In this display, Delano pairs photography with found objects. Delano’s photographs are laden with intensity, but there’s a carefully disruptive layer of levity imparted with a found object. In “The Sugar Bowl of The World,” Delano has taken a black-and-white photograph of Puerto Rican cane cutters and titled underneath it, “Porto Rican Cane Cutters Helping to fill the sugar bowl of the world,” and then he has obstructed the photo with a ready-made sugar bowl in front on a small white platform and added real sugar in the bowl. The historical oppression and exploitation of the people of Puerto Rico is indisputable, and Delano captures it with acuteness and irony.
Zara Yost (New City Art) writes, “With fewer galleries there’s more breadth and opportunity for fluidity and a focus on the artists and their work. There’s still a lot to see at Expo, so here’s a short list of booths you don’t want to miss.” She offers an insightful review of Pablo Delano’s work, presented
