Artists' Fellowship - 1995
Sculpture
Artist Statement:
In his large, lavishly detailed installations, Pepon Osorio's goal is to "…alter the viewer's reality in order to create room for fresh perceptions of Latino experience. Thematically, my work exposes a sensitive nerve in the Latino community--issues of AIDS, machismo, lack of sensitivity by the media are among the many that are reflected in my work." Osorio's most recent installation, 'En La Barberia No Se Llora [No Crying allowed in the Barbershop] (1994), addresses machismo in Latino culture by fully recreating this traditional masculine enclave with the surreal addition of a red plush car interior in one corner, pictures of swimming sperm beside portraits of Latino icons on the wall and two video monitors depicting one weeping man after another.
More about the Artist:
Pepon Osorio is best known for his conceptual installations. His aesthetic is influenced by his work as a social worker in the Bronx, NY. He is influenced by home altars, tattoo art, and outsider artists. A recent example of Osorio’s work is Tina’s House, a project created in collaboration with a family recovering from a devastating fire. The house—a tabletop-size art piece—tells the story of the night of the fire and those affected, and is traveling the country in a series of “home visits.” A home visit invites a new family to live with the artwork for a period of at least one week, allowing the story of Tina’s House to be told in many homes and environments.
Osorio's work has been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art and El Museo del Barrio in New York, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., and el Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and El Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico.
Pepón Osorio currently lives in Philadelphia. He is a MacArthur Fellow, 1999 and has works in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Newark Museum. Whitney Biennial, 1993.
He is a co-founded of Pepatian: Begun in 1983 as an artists collective by Bessie-award winning choreographer Merian Soto and Osorio, Pepatian is the umbrella organization for three programs: Bronx Artist Spotlight series (Jump It Up and Fall Into It), Pepon Osorio Projects and Merian Soto Dance & Performance.
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