The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Juan Francisco Elso: Por América

Institution
El Museo del Barrio
Grant Cycle
Fall 2021
Amount
$100,000
Type of Grant
Exhibition Support
Website
phxart.org/exhibition/juan-francisco-elso-por-america/ ↗
Juan Francisco Elso with his artwork Caballo contra colibrí, c. 1987-88. Fondo Magali Lara / Elso Padilla, Centro de Documentación Arkheia MUAC (UNAM-DiGAV) Photo: Cristina Lobeira.
Magali Lara. Femenino De la serie: El árbol del Cuerpo, 1993. Etching and aquatint. Artist’s Proof. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Estudio Magali Lara
Juan Francisco Elso. Corazon [Heart], 1983-1987. Clay. Courtesy of Rachel Weiss, New York. Photo: Chris Kendall
Lorraine O’Grady, The Fir Palm, 1991/2012. Silver gelatin print (photomontage). Alexander Gray Gallery, New York. Photo: Lorraine O’Grady
Juan Francisco Elso. Pájaro que vuela sobre América [Bird that Flies Over America], 1985. Carved wood, branches, wax, jute thread, and basket elements. Courtesy of Mr. Reynold C. & Dr. Marlene L. Kerr, Miami, Florida. Photo: Manu Sassoonian.
Michael Richards. Tar and Feather, 1999. Bonded bronze. Courtesy of the Michael Richards Estate. Photo: Oriol Tarridas
Juan Francisco Elso. Por América (José Martí), 1986. Wood, plaster, earth, pigment, synthetic hair, and glass eyes. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Photo: Ron Amstutz. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Luis Camnitzer. Canales, 1980. Typed document and map. Luis Camnitzer, New York and Alexander Gray Gallery, New York.

Juan Francisco Elso: Por América investigates the brief yet significant career of the late Cuban artist Juan Francisco Elso (1956-1988). Based in Havana, Elso was part of the first generation of artists born and educated in post-revolutionary Cuba, who gained international recognition in the early 1980’s.

Created mostly using natural, organic materials, his sculptural practice examines the complex forms of contemporary Cuban, Caribbean, and Latin American identities, as inflected by the cultural influences of Indigenous traditions, Afro-Caribbean religious beliefs, as well as the traumas of colonial oppression.

Presented through a contextual rather than monographic approach, Juan Francisco Elso: Por América is organized into several, interrelated thematic sections that explore vital crosscurrents between Elso’s art and the creative output of both close colleagues and others who, despite having not known him, demonstrate parallel affinities.

Juan Francisco Elso: Por América is curated by Olga Viso, guest curator, in collaboration with Susanna V. Temkin, El Museo curator.

See Also

1986

Warhol painted more than 100 works related to Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, which some have read as complex reckoning of his homosexuality, Catholicism, and mortality in response to witnessing AIDS devastate the gay community.