American Dream : Group exhibit, curated by Pedro Vizcaino. The Olga M & Carlos Saladrigas Gallery The Ignatian Center for the Arts, Miami Florida.
Introduction by Alfredo Triff.
“Dreams are dreams,” says the old Spanish proverb; its import so matter-of-fact that there’s is no way out of it. Then came the 20th century and we all felt we had to dream a different world to make this one better. Following years of despair, we had no choice but to equate the idea of dream to that of a hope.
For many, America became that hope. More than a name, a concept, an emblem, a piece of land, the promise of a better future or a lifestyle, the American dream happens differently to different people. If so, this show means more than what we see in these works. The art reflects a moment in these artist's lives related to a place where dreams happen and the geography is inconsequential, because one can always dream a place one has never been to.
On the other hand, many people live exiled from their own land. A kind of self-exile happening in the “America of our dreams.” Turn that metaphor on its head and this show begins to make sense. After all, making art is like working with dreams. And though it seems a bit optimistic to take America for a dream, some of these images are anything but optimistic. It’s in that sense of ambivalence that dreams happen and to that idea of America that these artists travel.
