LatchKey Gallery is proud to present XX, an exhibition of six female Latinx artists working with geometric abstraction. XX will open at 323 Canal Street in Manhattan and will run from March 23 to May 2, 2021. The exhibition features work by Beverly Acha, C.J. Chueca, Edra Soto, Ivelisse Jimenez, Marisol Martinez and Victoria Martinez.

XX is a response to current social and cultural shifts that aim to close historical gaps of visual representation, especially the exclusion of female Latinx artists working in abstraction.

The six featured artists physically and metaphorically stake their claim within the contemporary conversation, evoking emotion in the viewer. They force us to recognize the space they boldly occupy. 

Through reduction and repetition, C.J. Chueca and Victoria Martinez reframe abstractions of place. Using reclaimed materials such as tile fragments and discarded textiles, Chueca and Martinez channel the energy of their surroundings into compositions that welcome introspection, while asserting the white cube gallery for themselves. Martinez will exhibit a new site-specific work that the viewer can walk through.

Beverly Acha and Marisol Martinez use color and shape as tools of expression, balancing foreground and background to push and pull the viewer’s emotional consciousness. Colorful rectangles, squares and lines create cascading movements of evocative, beguiling play. Ivelisse Jimenez, while also working with color and shape, experiments with the boundaries of her artworks, often moving her materials beyond the traditional “edge” of the canvas. Utilizing scale and depth to envelop the body, Acha, Jimenez and Martinez create a transformative viewing experience.

Graceful geometric arcs and repetitive interlocking motifs will adorn the windows of the gallery in an installation from Edra Soto’s GRAFT series, created specifically for this exhibition. Modeled after quiebrasoles—distinctly Puerto Rican ornamental concrete blocks that provide shade from the sun—the installation invites the viewer to peer through the tiny openings in the pattern of the installation to find photos taken by the artist during her time at home in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. The viewfinders are inauspiciously placed throughout the piece to actively challenge viewers to reflect on the troubled relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico and the longstanding history of “looking in” and “walking away.”

The language of abstraction in and of itself is a form of dismantling an ordered way of thinking. Through their abstract art, these six female Latinx artists are a catalyst for progress, allowing us to think and feel more freely.

XX

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