Latin artist Carlos Solis discusses his mission with Contrapunto, connecting to other Latin artists and future plans.
Talk about the artistic mission of the Atlanta-based Contrapunto and how long has it been active.
The idea of Contrapunto started in 2008. The art scenery in Atlanta, in my opinion, was lacking of Latino presence at the time. Few Latin artists were given the opportunity to exhibit their work in the main galleries. It was disconcerting and disappointing, not only to witness this, but also in realizing how so few people knew about Latin American art in general.
I felt compelled and inspired to start something, a group of contemporary Latin American artists. I wanted variety and uniqueness as well a positive attitudes from the artists.
Today, I feel that I have accomplished just that. I have gathered a small yet strong group of very talented artists from Peru, Mexico and Venezuela. We have been successfully showing in galleries, museums, theaters and universities in several cities across the United States.
These artists and maestros are Stanley Bermudez (Venezuela), Pedro Fuertes (Peru), Jorge Arcos (Mexico), Dora Lopez (Peru) and me — Carlos Solis (Venezuela.)
The idea for the name of the group came from the artist, Stanley Bermudez.
He felt that we, as artists, were connected and worked together in a unique and harmonious way and the best way to describe that was by using this musical term: Counterpoint. [In music, “counterpoint” (contrapunto) is the technique of combining two or more melodic lines in such a way that they establish a harmonic relationship while retaining their linear individuality.]
We not only work in our own group, but also work with other groups and bring guest artists to our show. It is our philosophy to give the opportunity to emerging as well as established artists to be part of our shows.
The traveling exhibit involving the African Diaspora and Latin America is in Chicago. Tell us about the artistic connection between the African Diaspora and Latin America.
The message that I’m trying to convey with this project is to show parts of a reality in our cultures that have been denied for several obscure reasons. The fact is that we Latinos are Africans, Indians, Asians, Middle Eastern, etc. However, we have the tendency to praise only one group, Europeans. When I was painting the piece, Negro Primero, I could not find more than two paragraphs explaining him. On the other hand, if you do research about other important figures that are of Europeans descent, you can find infinitely more information. Our music, food and history have an African connection. If we reject that or try to hide it, we are denying ourselves as people. When we had the art talk at Guichard Gallery, we saw a reaction of awe and surprise of the stories about our Black heroes. That is exactly the reaction we want to see and the information I want to pass on. This is a project that I want to present to you and other Black/Latinos who made the difference in a positive way in our nations.
What inspired the traveling exhibit?
In order to “spread the word” or create awareness of our history and the connections of our communities, I felt that it is very important to show this project in different venues and places. We have so much more in common than we realized; unfortunately, we are allowing pitiful and mundane things to divide us. It is not acceptable to ignore this and be passive about it. We have to be better than this. Education is the key of everything and art is the best channel to use if you want people to listen and see what we are trying to do here.
For more information: [email protected]; carlosaugustosolis.blogspot.com
