URI Feinstein Providence Campus, The Puerto Rican Institute for Art & Advocacy and Mayor David Cicilline of the City of Providence presents: MY PUERTO RICO Celebrating Latino Culture September 2 - September 30 with a Gallery Night Reception and Entertainment September 18, 5:00-9:00pm. The exhibit will feature the work of Puerto Rican guest artists from Galería Sánchez: Patrick McGrath Muñiz, Erick Sánchez and Héctor Román along with local Latino artists Alfonso D. Acevedo, Astrid, Mario Ahumada, Pablo Alvarez, Nilton Cardenas, Lizette Cruz, Jorge George Díaz, Tamara Díaz, George Garcia, Francisco Hernandez, Julian Anthony Osorio Montoya, Angel Quiñonez, Jackie Rayes, Angeli Vélez, Julia Vera, and students artists from Central Falls High School . The exhibit will include more than 150 original artworks reflecting a diverse range of media, style and subject which resonate with rich cultural values and influences from the sacred to the profane, the political to the fancif...

Patrick McGrath My work responds to consumer media culture and the historical use of Christian icons in colonial Latin America. As a painter, growing up in Puerto Rico, one of the oldest colonies in the world and at the same time one of the countries with most cars per square mile, I explore the relationship between traditional icons and our modern day consumer society. The paintings project a world filled with unexpected anachronisms where spirituality is transgressed by triviality. Religious symbols loose their original meaning and are amorally converted into disposable marketplace products from the Media culture. This recontextualization of the “retablo” altarpiece painting imported from the Old World in colonial times, allows me to question today's assumptions about the demise of colonialism. By utilizing the “retablo” format, I can emulate previous indoctrination strategies and question the imported set of values from the corporate global economy. The “retablos” act then ...