Expressiones Cultural Center a Great Outlet For Latin American Art and Cultural Understanding

on 74 State Street is a fantastic center for arts and cultural learning of the Latin American community. The center features primarily art by Latin American artists or by artists trying to send a message about the community and culture through art.

The center in managed by Guido Garaycochea and Jose Ulloa and serves as not only a gallery but as a learning space, a working art studio for Garaycochea and an art classroom for youth in the area.

“We really want to reach out to the kids from low income families that normally would never go into a gallery…and make them proud of who they are and their roots,” Garaycochea tells Patch. Expressiones runs free classes for children and then has a reception at the end of each season to celebrate their work.

This work is exhibited in the window display curated by Mary Kelly, a board member of Expressiones. The display will show “student work as well as work by the exhibiting artist,” says Kelly. “We want the kids to be proud of their work so we place it out front in the window,” says Garaycochea.

The display will generally feature both an English and Spanish title and will change with the seasons and with major holidays and Latin festivals such as Cinco de Mayo.

Garaycochea’s studio space is adjacent to the classroom/meeting space so it gives the kids a chance to see the space of a working professional Latin American artist.

The current exhibit at Expressiones is a show by artist Elaine Mills, inspired by Cervantes and his most famous novel Don Quixote. “I’ve been admiring this artist for a long time,” says Garaycochea of Mills. “I've been looking for an excuse to get her here.”

“At first I didn’t know anything about Cervantes…then I realized the novel [Don Quixote] was a self reflective work…and had a flavor relating to time,” Mills tells Patch. For the display, Mills illustrated two books Man Time and Man Time II. Both offer primarily visual narrative with few or no words, leaving the imagery up for interpretation. 

Elaine Mills also shares a series of photographs of her unusual sightings and life experiences.  One series includes strange cloud formations such as heart’s stars and saucers while other photos have stories such as a butterfly that visited her for nine months prior to the 9-11 attacks. “In Cervantes’ book [Don Quixote] sees a lot of things that nobody else sees…a lot of magical things happen…unusual things happen to me to and I wanted to share them in this show,” says Mills.

Expressiones is looking forward to featuring new artists this upcoming season in the gallery space.  You are invited to visit the galley Wednesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.