Colby Museum show asks how U.S. became an empire as country marks 250 years

The exhibition's arrival in the year of the country's 250th anniversary was coincidental, its curator said.

Adam Schrader - Jul 18, 2026

Installation view of Guam Political and Puerto Rico Political II by artist Amber Robles-Gordon. Photo courtesy of Art Index

The Colby College Museum of Art has opened an exhibition asking how the United States became an empire, five years after a history course on the subject inspired its curator.

The show, "Imagining an Archipelago: Art from Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Their Diasporas," opened July 11 in Waterville, Maine, and runs through June 6, 2027.

It holds about 50 works by more than 40 contemporary artists connected to islands that came under U.S. control after the Treaty of Paris in 1898, two of which — Guam and Puerto Rico — remain U.S. territories.

The show arrived in the year of the country's 250th anniversary, which curator Jessamine Batario said was not the plan.

"It was coincidental, in all transparency," she said. The exhibition was first scheduled for 2024, then pushed to 2025 and 2026. "So it's not meant to respond to the 250th anniversary but I think it's certainly relevant to it."

"As an emerging country, we were colonies and rose up against the colonizer. This exhibition also considers that from the flip side," Batario said. "How did the United States become an empire? That's something we don't necessarily think about."

Stephanie Syjuco, Afterimages (Obstruction of Vision), 2021. Photo courtesy of Colby College Museum of Art

Batario said the project began in 2021 in conversation with Colby faculty in English, history, Spanish, American studies and anthropology.

"It was through the course of a history course, the history of U.S. empire, and thinking about what happens after Manifest Destiny and westward expansion. The one-word answer was islands," she said.

Batario was born in the Philippines and educated in California, where she said the war that produced the territories got a single class session.

"The Spanish-American War in 1898 was covered in history class for maybe a day," she said. "I was born in the Philippines, so learning about the history of where I was born in just one day felt like a shortcoming."

Gamaliel Rodríguez, Correctional Faith, 2022. Photo courtesy of Colby College Museum of Art

She said most people in the United States know the country has 50 states but little about the territories. Puerto Rico has gained wider attention through popular culture and figures like Bad Bunny, while Guam is known mainly through the military.

"I wanted to share the importance of these cultures beyond their military use, to share the lived experiences of the people through the artwork," Batario said. "These islands are becoming newsworthy because of their strategic locations. But many people live there with cultures that have existed for hundreds, even thousands of years."

She said she wants the show to move the islands out of the periphery for visitors.

"If you look at a map, islands are an afterthought. They are usually in the margins, not part of the continent, and seemingly small. This exhibition takes what is in the margins and places it in the center," Batario said.

Installation view of Thea Canlas' Export Quality (Value Studies: Uniforms). Photo courtesy of Art Index

The museum built the exhibition with the artists rather than around them, holding two convenings in Maine in 2022 and 2024 at the Colby campus and on Allen Island in Muscongus Bay.

Batario said the sections on food, land, sea and sky, religion and spirituality, and militarization came from what the artists said there. A geographic section was added as an introduction for visitors unfamiliar with the places.

Batario also made studio visits across the United States and in Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.

The Guam trip shaped the militarization section, she said. Jets from Andersen Air Force Base flew overhead while she was on the island, and an artist driving with her described the flights as routine.

"It's part of daily life. Nobody bats an eye because it just happens all the time," Batario said.

Installation view of Imagining an Archipelago: Art from Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Their Diasporas , Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2026. Zilia Sánchez, Lunar negro con tatuaje , 1975. Photo: Art Index

Artists there also took her on a hike down to Fouha Rock, a formation in Fouha Bay that CHamoru tradition holds as the site where the first people came into being. The National Park Service designated it a National Natural Landmark in 1972.

"And so on the one hand, I felt like this military presence, and on the other hand, I felt like such a sense of sacredness in the place. And so there's a duality there," she said. "And it's really complex, too. A lot of CHamorus themselves are very patriotic."

Batario said the jets on Guam represent economic opportunity as much as intrusion.

"I wanted to be sure to convey multiple perspectives and not just one kind of indictment or response to these histories," she said.

That is the reason for the artist count, she said.

"I think the number of artists in the exhibition, 40, illustrates the multiplicity of voices and perspectives related to these places and histories," Batario said. "I could never imagine an exhibition that speaks to these histories from four different places with fewer artists."

She said she did not want one artist, or a handful, carrying centuries of a people's history, and that "inviting as many voices to the table as I could, given our space constraints" drove the selection. The works span painting, photography, sculpture, found objects, installation, ceramics, charcoal and weaving.

The exhibition includes new commissions by Jerome Reyes, Sara Jimenez, Mariquita "Micki" Davis, Isa Gagarin and Camille Hoffman, whose site-specific installation runs along a corridor connecting the museum's Lunder Wing to the show.

Batario pointed to the exhibition's militarization section as the place where the perspectives collide.

"Some of the most patriotic people you meet are from these islands," she said, describing viewpoints in that section as incongruent. "It's not just one response to these histories. It's multiple. I think the legacies of these histories are unpredictable. You have no idea how people will respond."

Gisela McDaniel, Put it down for her, 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias

Asked how much weight she placed on political expression in a contemporary show on colonization, Batario said she did not build it to argue a position.

"I don't think of this exhibition as partisan. It includes multiple perspectives, and people can decide what they want from what they learn," she said.

Every artist in the show is contemporary, Batario said, including several who have died, some as recently as two years ago and some in the 1990s. The oldest work dates to 1975, and most were made after 2000, many in the last five years.

"The exhibition focuses on recent work because it drives the point home that these histories are not just in the past," she said. "These histories have legacies that have a bearing on how people live in their communities today."

She said the show is also answering an earlier one, "1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions," which ran at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery from April 2023 to February 2024 and handled the period through historical portraiture.

"In many ways, these two exhibitions are bookends to each other and build on that art historical discourse," Batario said.

Working on contemporary art meant the exhibition had to track events as it was being assembled. Beatriz Santiago Muñoz's 2014 video Ojos para mis enemigos follows a person walking through a decommissioned Navy base in Puerto Rico and the wildlife that has moved into it, according to the exhibition checklist.

"This is what happens when you decommission a Navy base. Nature comes back," Batario said, calling the work a document of a temporary possibility.

The base went back into use in late 2025, and Batario said the museum acknowledged that in the presentation, citing increased tensions in the Caribbean. She did not name the base. The Navy reactivated Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Ceiba, closed since 2004, as U.S. forces built up in the region.

The delays that pushed the opening to 2026 were logistical, she said, related to spacing large exhibitions across the museum's program.

"So, truly, the decision to push it back was to keep the staff in mind and ensure we had the resources to do this properly," Batario said.

Batario said the work changed her relationship to her own family history. She said she often consulted with her mother “on all kinds of cultural issues.”

She singled out Thea Canlas' Export Quality (Value Studies: Uniforms), a 2023 installation of machine-embroidered piña cloth, white sand, sugar, pearls and teeth, according to the checklist. Canlas took the pineapple fiber traditionally reserved for the barong — the shirt worn at weddings and, by the president, at state events — and cut it into a workman's jumpsuit and a maid's uniform.

"It's a beautiful, exquisite fiber," Batario said, adding that the piece "made me think about the relevance of culture and our own traditions" as something for people doing daily work rather than public figures. She called it one of her favorite installations in the show.

Batario said far more artists came out of the studio visits than the galleries could hold.

"I think of this exhibition as part of a longer curatorial process. Just because I met an artist and didn't include them doesn't mean I won't work with them in the future," she said.

Doing the show in Maine is less unlikely than it sounds, Batario said, both because Colby's museum is an academic one and because the communities are present in the state.

"It might seem odd, but there are small communities of Filipinos and Puerto Ricans in Maine," she said. "They're not as sizable as you might find in big cities, but they are still here."

After Waterville, the show has plans to travel to museums in Puerto Rico, California and New Jersey through the start of 2029.

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Imagining an Archipelago: Art from Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Their Diasporas

July 11, 2026 - June 6, 2027

Image Caption: María Magdalena Campos-Pons, “Freedom Trap,” 2013. Polaroid Polacolor Pro. 24 × 20 in. (61.0 × 50.8 cm). Museum purchase from the Jere Abbott Acquisitions Fund, 2024.044

Colby College Museum of Art connects generations across oceans through works by more than 40 contemporary artists in “Imagining an Archipelago: Art from Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Their Diasporas.” The physically and visually immersive exhibition brings together approximately 50 paintings, sculptures, videos, prints, photographs and multimedia installations, including several newly commissioned works that create site-specific experiences. The artworks explore the artists’ relationships to the histories and communities of their lands and seas.

Themes of cultural and political self-determination, indigeneity and migration and climate crisis and resilience unite the exhibition. One floor is organized geographically, showcasing each island’s uniqueness, while the other floor is organized by theme—Land, Sea and Sky; Religion and Spirituality; Food; and Military Occupations—offering visitors multiple ways to engage with ideas of history, culture and identity.

Two large-scale, double-sided quilts from the “Successions” series by Afro Puerto Rican artist Amber Robles-Gordon set the tone for the exhibition. One pays homage to the artist’s native Puerto Rico and the other is dedicated to Guam. Together, the quilts introduce the central exhibition theme of solidarity between the islands. The exhibition title is presented in English, Spanish, Filipino and CHamoru and is inspired by the work of CHamoru poet Craig Santos Perez. It represents connections that supersede proximity and are rooted in the shared history and experiences across diasporas.

Commissioned works include projected text by Jerome Reyes, ceramics and textiles by Sara Jimenez, Mariquita “Micki” Davis’ large-scale cyanotype on canvas, Isa Gagarin’s painting on fused plastic and a video by Judith Escalona documenting the 2024 Islands Project Convening that brought several artists together to help shape the exhibition. Camille Hoffman’s site-specific installation will transform a transitional space into an immersive environment. Hoffman will paint directly on the walls and floor and affix found objects throughout the corridor, linking the American art collection in the museum’s Lunder Wing to “Imagining an Archipelago.”

The exhibition’s historical focus begins in the late 19th century. As movements toward independence gained momentum across Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico, the 1898 Treaty of Paris shifted control from Spain to the United States. “Imagining an Archipelago” is the first major exhibition to use contemporary art to examine the impact of extending Manifest Destiny beyond North America, challenging the perception of the US as a purely continental nation and centering islands that were—and, in the cases of Puerto Rico and Guam, still are—under US control. The exhibition opens a window into living history, offering a new and vital lens through which to see connections between the past and a present moment marked by global and domestic events that test the viability of democracy.

Through painting, photography, installation, sculpture, weaving, assemblage and film, the artists convey the layered realities of life shaped by U.S. expansion. Together, the artworks form a vivid archipelago of stories that underscore the enduring impact of these histories on contemporary American life and invite visitors to reconsider how we carry the past and what it means to be American.

Following its debut at Colby Museum, “Imagining an Archipelago” will embark on a national tour, including showings at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico (fall 2027), a presentation made possible by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco (spring/summer 2028) and the Newark Museum of Art in New Jersey (fall 2028).

Support for this exhibition and its national tour is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Teiger Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

https://www.archpaper.com/event/imagining-archipelago-art-cuba-guam-philippines-puerto-rico-diasporas/

Jiha Moon y Amber Robles-Gordon en la Derek Eller Gallery

Obervacion de Influentes cultura y herencia Taino, el clima y el machismo (Observation of Influencers: Taino culture and heritage, the climate and machismo), 2020
mixed media collage on canvas
18 x 24 in.

Desde el 6 de enero y hasta el 5 de febrero de 2022, la Derek Eller Gallery presenta dos exposiciones individuales de las artistas Jiha Moon y Amber Robles-Gordon.

Fuente: Derek Eller Gallery. Imagen: Amber Robles-Gordon, “Observación de Influencers: cultura y herencia Taino, el clima y el machismo” (Observation of Influencers: Taino culture and heritage, the climate and machismo), 2020

Nacida en Puerto Rico en 1977, pero criada en los suburbios de Washington DC, la herencia caribeña siempre ha estado presenta en la obra de Amber Robles-Gordon. Utilizando una amplia gama de materiales -incluyendo pintura acrílica, fotografía, tela y el dibujo a tinta- Robles-Gordon rinde homenaje a los temas tradicionales puertorriqueños a la vez que denuncia la relación colonialista entre Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico. La galería explica como el árbol del caucho (Fiscus Elastica, planta autóctona de Puerto Rico) es un tema recurrente en las obras expuestas en “Place of Birth and Breath” (Lugar de nacimiento y respiración), estando a veces rodeada “de ‘ecoesferas’ circulares, densamente repletas de información y artefactos relacionados con su conexión espiritual y etérea con su entorno.”

Al mismo tiempo, la galería presenta también Jiha Moon: Stranger Yellow, una exposición de obras de la artista Jiha Moon, nacida en Corea del Sur en 1973 pero residente en Atlanta. El título de la exposición hace referencia a un tono particular de amarillo empleado por la artista en sus obras, que Moon describe como “un color misterioso, exuberante, pero cautelosamente alto, que destaca”. La pieza central de la exposición, “Yellowave (Stranger Yellow)”, un díptico de unos tres metros de largo, muestra varios de los elementos habituales en la obra de la artista, desde el uso del “Stranger Yellow” hasta la presencia de elementos del folklore y la cultura popular coreana.

Ambas exposiciones pueden contemplarse en la Galería Derek Eller de Broome Street, Nueva York, de martes a sábado de 11 a 18 horas, y con cita previa.

https://theartwolf.com/es/exposiciones/jiha-moon-robles-gordon-eller-2022/

Amber Robles-Gordon’s anti-colonial quilts and personal histories at American University Museum at the Katzen Center

“y mi bandera vuela mas alto que la tuya,” 2020. Mixed media collage on canvas, 18 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

By Andrea KirshDecember 17, 2021

An artist’s visit to her mother’s birth place in Puerto Rico awakens her to the complexities of immigration and family – and to the dubious socio-political actions and inactions, by the U.S. government in its far-flung territories. Our reviewer Andrea Kirsh is moved by the powerful collage works and double-sided quilts of Amber Robles-Gordon. The show closed Dec. 12.

Amber Robles-Gordon‘s first grade classmates in Arlington, VA bullied her for speaking Spanish, so she learned to speak to her mother in English. It wouldn’t be until middle age that the artist finally visited her mother’s birthplace in Puerto Rico. Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism, her solo exhibition at the the American University Museum at the Katzen Center (August 28 – Dec. 12, 2021) in Washington, D.C. was the product of that initial trip and a her return for a six-week residence on the island in 2020.

The exhibition presented two bodies of work. The first, “Place of Breath and Birth” is a series of ten vibrant collages on canvas, all 18 x 24 inches; two, represented by full-scale pigment prints. The collages are constructed from masses of tiny images cut from paper; even the bands of color that form their backgrounds are assembled from minute, colored fragments. And there is a very personal rhythm – like distinctive brushwork – in the way Robles-Gordon arranges the fragments.

Another personal language of Robles-Gordon’s appearing in the fragments is inspired by multiple, non-Western cultural traditions and imagery taken from magazines and photographs. These fragments are used as structuring and framing elements, incorporating the artist’s drawings of detailed and decorative, spiky, geometric patterns. An occasional small trinket or charm adds surface texture, as does the profusion of tiny, sparkly beads which outline the central, circular forms on each collage. The beads and high-keyed colors capture the intense sunlight of the Caribbean and lend a festival-like quality to the series.

Robles-Gordon culls her imagery from photographs she took in Puerto Rico or found elsewhere that evoke its lush, intensely-polychromed environment – both natural and human. While on the island, she was fascinated by the rubber trees and palms, the coconuts and mangos, street murals and public art. The titles of individual collages suggest the range of topics that were prompted by her visits: “Observation of Influencers: Taino culture and heritage, the climate and machismo,” “For bioluminescent bays and turtles.”

Her long-time interest in spirituality and syncretic, New World religious practices inspire aspects of the collages’ format, which the artist likens to personal altars. The imagery of fruit and floral offerings, flickering candles and the crystalline forms of her drawing run throughout the series and reinforce their spiritual associations. She includes photos of herself – both earlier and contemporary images – in several collages, and there is no question that the series itself is a diary of self-discovery.

“Reflexiones sobre el yo, la virgen maría y el colonialismo,” 2020. Mixed media, collage on canvas, 18 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Quilts of pointed anti-colonial critique

If the collages capture Robles-Gordon’s connection to her ancestral culture in the form of personal, spiritual reflection, the second part of the exhibition responded to her developing political understanding of Puerto Rico’s position as a U.S. Territory. The works are a public forum in which to teach, to encourage discussion, to heal, and to begin building a congregation of territorial residents. Six, large, double sided, appliqued quilts hung throughout the high-ceilinged gallery. The installation, which gave its name to the exhibition, was titled “Successions; Traversing U.S. Colonialism.” The quilts include dense references to histories that have yet to be acknowledged and the dark underside of U.S. power. Their format entangles the conventionalized emblems of history and patriotism with the domestic craft of quilting, the masculine pursuit of territory and power with a feminine tradition of healing.

On one side of each quilt Robles-Gordon addresses political history, with references to each of the U.S. Territory’s flag or seal, as well as to the exploitation of its indigenous people for medical experimentation, military support and economic interests; on the other side she constructs an altar dedicated to healing the damage of historical exploitation and the racism which underpins it. Both sides bear central medallions; they are greatly enlarged versions of the circles in the collages, and make references to the circle as a foundational religious image and form of celebration – to healing circles and ceremonial dancing. The healing altars are constructed with the same spiky, geometric patterning that Robles-Gordon used in the collages, and all have hieratic, symmetrical designs. Here they suggest abstracted figures of deities, and their patterning makes reference to a variety of Afro-diasporic and non-Western decorative histories seen in painting, textiles and ceramics. Although painted, they appear to be drawings in chalk on black backgrounds, which suggests religious images in various cultures which are intended to be temporary.

The timing of Robles-Gordon’s residency in Puerto Rico reinforced her understanding of the disparity between U.S. government support to the island after the overwhelming damage from Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017, and the level of disaster relief Americans have come to expect on the mainland. This understanding, in turn, led to her interest in the U.S. Territories as a group; areas under United States dominion with the highest percentage of poverty, where the government has exploited resources and sited strategic military bases, with little concern for the inhabitants – all people of color, who are largely, only nominally U.S. Citizens. The territories function, rather, as U.S. colonies.

Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands are unfamiliar to many on the mainland United States. Few Americans know that their residents are U.S. Citizens with the right to vote – although they lack full representation in Congress. Robles-Gordon included Washington, D.C., her current home, among the territories because it’s residents, too, fall under U.S. jurisdiction but have no fully-empowered Congressional representative.

Robles-Gordon used her childhood bullying as a spur to understanding her own cultural traditions, and it is characteristic of her long-developed career of teaching and producing art that she didn’t respond to the history of territorial exploitation with rage, but with honesty, offering understanding, teaching and healing as a foundation on which to advocate for social justice in the outlying regions of the United States and in powerless communities internationally. The sense of spirituality and turning towards a better future pervades her work as much as her personally-developed language of forms and patterns, use of repurposed materials, passionate polychrome, and fusion of visual traditions.

Amber Robles-Gordon, “Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism” is now closed. It was on view at the American University Museum at the Katzen Center in Washington, D.C., August 28–December 12, 2021.

“The eternal altar for the women forsaken and souls relinquished. Yet the choice must always remain hers/ El altar eterno de las mujeres abandonadas y las almas renunciadas. Sin embargo, la elección siempre debe ser de ella.,” 2020. Mixed media collage on canvas, 18 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

“Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism” on Exhibit at American University Museum

“USVI Spiritual, Moko Jumbie: Walk Tall and Heal Forward” Mixed Media on quilt, (back of “USVI Political”) 2021 (Courtesy of Amber Robles-Gordon)

Amber Robles-Gordon’s “Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism” has a dual purpose. It consists of her “Place of Birth and Breath” solo exhibit viewed first in her native Puerto Rico in 2020, and it has evolved into a component exhibit, which is an exploration of the historical underpinnings of U.S. Colonialism.

Robles-Gordon is a mixed media visual artist whose solo exhibit at the American University Museum opened in August and can be viewed Fridays through Sundays, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. until Dec. 12.

What began as a quest, “to heal my five-year-old self: to empower her to fight for herself, her language and her culture,” the exhibition took on “the intersections of language, culture, institutional racism, anti-blackness and their immeasurable impact within the U.S. territories,” said Robles-Gordon.

A native-born Puerto Rican with family from St. Thomas, St. John, Puerto Rico, Tortola and Antigua, Robles-Gordon created a visual discussion of the historical and political plight and resilience of the District of Columbia, where she resides, and the five U.S. territories that her two-sided quilts represent. They embody the artist’s creation of a political study of the territories and on the reverse side, a spiritual and cultural study.

Robles-Gordon’s early love of art and creativity moved her delight with fabrics, quilts and found objects to the discovery that these could and would be her artistic narrative.

A writer uses words to express; my medium of expression is my art, she said. “I use a myriad of materials according to what I’m trying to convey in a particular project or a particular narrative. It’s very essential that I match up with what I’m trying to convey,” Robles-Gorden said.

The decision to dismiss her native language, Spanish, came as a result of the teasing and ridicule Robles-Gordon experienced as a five-year-old kindergartener at her school in Arlington, Virginia, far away from her birthplace of Puerto Rico. She did not look like a Latina girl that was familiar to her classmates, and hence developed the bullying of this little brown-skinned girl.

In time, Robles-Gordon realized the importance of embracing her language and her culture and the need to find ways to heal through her research and employ it through her art as the medium on her journey to healing.

Speaking of her years as an artist, Robles-Gordon’s journey toward healing is what she brings creatively in her discoveries about U.S. Colonialism, “I think that it’s a beginning. There’s not an end to my journey. It’s a part of my journey. I think I’ve done a hell of a job in starting it. I actually feel proud about it in my own life. That feels good,” she said.

Robles-Gordon made the universe know how important this part of her journey is. “I think I’ve done that,” she said.

“Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism” exhibits the component of Robles-Gordon’s body of work containing six quilts embodying the Commonwealth of the District of Columbia, and the five U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. The other component, “Place of Birth and Breath,” is the collage on canvas series created in 2020 and exhibited at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazon, (University of the Sacred Heart) in Puerto Rico.

“Place of Birth and Breath” is Robles-Gordon’s 10 mixed-media collage canvases that are a result of the visit with her mother to Puerto Rico where both women recaptured their roots, one of her childhood home, and the other of her birthplace.

“Isla del Encanto” collage, 18×24, 2020. (Courtesy of Amber Robles-Gordon)

A foundational symbology of the “Birth and Breath” body of work is the rubber tree that grows on the campus of the University of the Sacred Heart, which Robles-Gordon was introduced to while in Puerto Rico. “This tree appeared to be a literal fusion of past, present and future states of creation or sustaining an ecosystem. Throughout the series, are abstracted representations of the rubber tree – an entanglement of strong roots – as an example of its resiliency this tree most recently stood-fast to its native soil while 155 mph winds battered the campus,” Robles-Gordon noted.

Robles-Gordon shares her intricate ideas of how she layered her work depicting and interpreting the transitions of day to night and night to day. She relates to three major ethnic/racial groups – the Taino, the Spaniards and Africans, the stranglehold of the United States and the impact of the Caribbean Sea with its threat of hurricanes, scorching summer heat and lush landscapes.

Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism at American University exhibition closes on Dec. 12. The journey continues. The conversation continues. The healing continues.

See Amber Robles-Gordon’s website here..

Gallery Talk for Successions: Traversing US Colonialism

Gallery Talk: "Successions"

DC mixed-media artist Amber Robles-Gordon talks "Successions" with curator Larry Ossei-Mensah.

About this Event:

Successions is a conceptual juxtaposition that celebrates abstraction as an art form while leveraging it as a tool to interrogate past and current US policies within its federal district (Washington, DC) and territories (including Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands) that it controls. 

This event will be held virtually. Please register to receive the Zoom link via email.  Learn more about the exhibition. 

OrganizerAmerican University Museum At The Katzen Arts Center

Organizer of Gallery Talk: "Successions"

Housed in the dynamic and multidisciplinary Katzen Arts Center, the American University Museum builds its programming on the strengths of a great college and great university. We focus on international art because American University has a global commitment. We show political art because the university is committed to human rights, social justice, and political engagement. We support the artists in our community because the university takes an active and responsible role in the formation of our contemporary art and culture. 

We present exhibitions that mirror American University’s aspiration to be the premier Washington-based, global university. Our programming puts the best art of our region in a national and international context. Our collections enable us to present the art history of Washington, while our Kunsthalle attitude brings the most provocative art of our time to our place.

You may also like the following events from American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center:

• Next month, 12th October, 06:00 pm, Gallery Talk: "Seeing Climate Change"

• Next month, 14th October, 06:00 pm, Gallery Talk: "Reveal" in Online

• This November, 17th November, 06:00 pm, Gallery Talk: “In the Light of Memory” in Online

Also check out other Arts Events in Online,Exhibitions in Online.

Ticket Information: RSVP

Tickets for Gallery Talk: "Successions" can be booked below.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gallery-talk-successions-tickets-163405503259

Ticket Price: Free

Image: Amber Robles-Gordon, y mi bandera vuela mas alto que la tuya (detail), 2020. Mixed media collage on canvas, 18 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Successions: Traversing US Colonialism Amber Robles-Gordon

August 28–December 12, 2021

American University Museum Curated by
at the Katzen Arts Center Larry Ossei-Mensah

Amber Robles-Gordon presents Successions: Traversing US Colonial- ism, a solo exhibition on view at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in fall 2021. Successions is a conceptual juxta- position that celebrates abstraction as an art form while leveraging it as a tool to interrogate past and current US policies within its federal district (Washington, DC) and territories (including Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands) that it controls. By highlighting nuances relat- ed to US governance in its federal districts and territories, Robles-Gor- don seeks to question who has access to resources, citizenship, and the right to sovereignty.

y mi bandera vuela mas alto que la tuya., Mixed Media Collage on Canvas, 18 x 24 in., 2020

Robles-Gordon creates artwork imbued with a layered visual language replete with cultural signifiers and abstract gestures. Successions is a celebration of abstraction as an artistic expression. Robles-Gordon uti- lizes iconic artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Alma Thomas, Romare Bearden, and members of the Washington Color School as vivid refer- ence points for her own dynamic use of color, form, and material within the works she created for the exhibition. These explorations will provide insights into a number of inquiries that undergird the construction of the exhibition. Successions creates a pathway towards discursive crit- icism around issues impacting marginalized communities oppressed by the United States’ hegemonic domestic and foreign policies. The exhibition features a new body of colorful abstract paintings, collages, and quilts created in 2020 and 2021 between San Juan, Puerto Rico (Robles-Gordon’s birthplace) and Washington, DC (where she current- ly lives).

USVI Political, Detail, Front, Mixed Media on Quilt, 86 in. x 90 in., in., 2021

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Robles-Gordon’s creative strategies were directly impacted as a result of sheltering in place in San Juan. The lack of access to materials and arduous circumstances she was confronted with in Puerto Rico and upon returning to Washington, DC catalyzed Robles-Gordon to impro- vise her approach to making works for the exhibition. Moreover, the ex- perience heightened her awareness of how communities on the margin are adversely treated during mo- ments of crisis.

Robles-Gordon’s also uses works featured in Successions to mine the stories, personal narratives, and aesthetics of the women of the Caribbean, particularly of African de- scent, in an effort to investigate the political, socio-economic, and envi- ronmental implications of placemaking, contemporary colonial policy, and notions of citizenship on these social groups. The debate over DC statehood, similar to Puerto Rico, has been a prevalent point of con- tention in the District but rarely featured in the national conversation. Robles-Gordon seeks to use her “backyard” as a metaphor that would

expand our understanding of notions of freedom, liberty, and justice.

A fully illustrated catalog with essays by Ossei-Mensah and Noel Anderson and in-person and virtual programs will accompany the exhibi- tion, enriching the viewer’s experience.

Recent initiatives of our Galería de Arte at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, The director of Galería de Arte, Norma Vila, interviewed Amber Robles Gordon, our visiting artist.

Since its inception, the Galería’s mission has been to offer the university and general public a heterogeneous program that researches and documents current humanistic issues through Puerto Rican art. Beyond working the heterogeneous within the artistic manifestations, as an institution driven by its civic and academic mission, we have opted to provide space to projects and artists whose voices promote social justice issues. Intersectional topics such as gender, race, beliefs, values, and our diaspora are included in the Galería’s program and it becomes a teaching-learning laboratory for faculty and students. The Galería affords the opportunity to create interdisciplinary experiences and strengthen analytical and creative thinking.

But how to expose them to what happens outside the island? For this academic year, the Gallery decided to launch a visiting artist program and selected Washington, D.C.-based Afro-Puerto Rican artist Amber Robles Gordon. Having a visiting artist contributes to the training of students far beyond a class, it functions as an on-site journey, and strengthens ties with the community. Most importantly, visiting artists bolster our vision of lifelong education by challenging the “right answer” framework that limits the teaching and learning experiences.

At the beginning of the academic year, Robles-Gordon visited the island for the first time since she left Puerto Rico when she was very young. As our invited artist, she lodged at a residence adjacent to the campus, and gave a series of conferences to various groups of students. Her second visit to Sagrado was on November when gave a conference based on her work and artistic professional practice. She expounded on how she has broken with the stereotypes of Afro-Latin-American women and artists and how she uses her profession as support and defense of social justice. 

Amber Robles Gordon is an artist known for recontextualizing non-traditional materials at different scales from two-dimensional artwork to her public works of art. Her intention is to emphasize the essentiality of spirituality and temporality within life. Robles is driven by the need to build her own distinctive path, innovate and challenge social norms, which is why her artwork is unconventional and unformulated. Her creations are representative of her personal experiences and the paradoxes within the imbalance of masculine and feminine energies in our society. Ultimately, she seeks to examine the parallels between how humanity perceives its greatest resources, men, and women, and how we treat our possessions and the environment.

From the experience of visiting the island, she created a body of artwork appropriately titled “A Place of Breath and Birth” which was to be exhibited in April 2020. However, this was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The solution to this problem was to present her work in a virtual fashion.

Having the opportunity to coordinate her two visits to our campus, exchange experiences, listen to her motivating lectures, and see in her recent artistic production, sparked in me the desire to interview her. I hope you can get to know more about Amber Robles Gordon through this conversation.

N: Place of Breath and Birth is the title of your recent production developed in Puerto Rico. Would you please elaborate on the significance of the name?

A: The title literally came from my desire to know more about where I was born and where my mother spent her childhood. Puerto Rico (PR) is both my place of birth and the place where I drew my first breath.  At the time of my birth, most of my family – maternal and paternal – lived in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. I spent the first two years of my life in St. Thomas and then moved with my mom and dad to Washington, DC.  My mother—the primarily link to my birthplace—taught me Spanish and kindled my identification with ‘La Isla”.  During my 2019, trip, I began my search for family members who still resided in PR.  I felt that this search would cultivate a deeper relationship with Puerto Rico.

After my two visits to Puerto Rico in late 2019, I decided in early 2020 to rent an apartment in Puerto Nuevo to start producing the series “A Place of Breath and Birth.” Due to the persistent earthquakes, and the risk that they represent for the Sacred community, my exhibition was postponed, later with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, everything worldwide changed and I had to return to Washington D.C. New works produced under the title A Place of Encouragement and Birth were moved to an online platform. 

This would be my first opportunity to exhibit in the Caribbean and deepen my relationship with my birthplace, Puerto Rico, “La Isla del Encanto”. That is why I have titled the exhibition, Place of Breath and Birth. This was my original statement as an artist that gave rise to this series and it is still burning and guiding my discovery daily. The intention of the proposal for an individual exhibition at P.R. was to empower my five-year-old self. To give her the strength to fight for herself, her language and culture. I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in Arlington, Virginia. My first language was Spanish, yet at about five years old, I came home one day and told my mother: “I was not speaking Spanish anymore”. From then on, I responded to my Spanish/English speaking mother in English only.  Later, I came to understand that I had surrendered my Spanish tongue—a critical part of my cultural identity— so that I could “fit” a version of myself that could possibly coincide with the prescribed box that others had for a brown-skinned girl such as myself.  Although in time, the name calling ceased, however, the micro-aggressions, insensitive questions, assumptions, and judgments about my brownness lingered. Throughout this life, time-after-time, I have had to choose to identify with my brownness/blackness over the other cultural ties that bind other Spanish speaking people with their culture.

Although, my personal narrative is the main focus of these works of art, I will continue to contextualize it within the political, socioeconomic, and environmental threads that define and are often used to control, alienate, or mistreat Puerto Ricans in general and Afro-Puerto Ricans. in particular. Also, my artwork is about the intersections of femininity, patriarchy, hybridism, and Americanism. Ultimately, I hope this narrative and this work of art will give voice to others who walk in shades of brown, who breathe within a feminine form and who do not conform to the rules… but are bold and proud.

Elemental: Tierra, Aire, Agua, Fuego, 18 x 24, 2020

N: That visit in September 2019 was your first visit to Puerto Rico. How was that first encounter?

A: Technically, my two-week trip to PR in September 2019, was my first trip there as an adult.  My mother told me that I have been to PR as a young child. However, I truly had no memory of those visits.  During the first trip, accompanied by my mother, we realized this was the first time we traveled alone together. I had my mother all to myself! She is an amazing human being:  She is always working, helping family, friends and organizations and causes that concern her. She is always DOING something. Thus, being able to spend time with her exploring the Sagrado Corazon’s campus, local art museums and galleries, El Yunque National Rain Forest, and other places imprinted on my mother’s childhood were immeasurable.  Moreover, I meet my boyfriend during this trip. So I have many good reasons to celebrate having been able to visit the island.

N: As our visiting artist you offered a presentation to 3 groups of the Art Program of the University. For those who weren’t there, would you elaborate on how you integrate your origins and beliefs with the use of various materials and vibrant colors?

A: I believe following one’s authentic internal voice is an essential part of integrating ones’ origins and beliefs and projecting this awareness into the use of whatever medium and or methods you choose to create with or live by. Creating art, is an essential method of self-joy and self-expression, and a means for sharing my concerns and connecting to a higher power.

I have known, I would be at artist since I was eight years old. Beyond being loved and cherished by my mother and father as a child; the other activities that triggered an innate and immediate positive response, was being encouraged and praised for my creativity. I recall the feeling of pride when my first or second-grade art teacher praised my artistry or being allowed to hang my artwork in the lobby of our apartment building—the Brittany, Arlington, VA—as a teenager. My life experiences have been intricately connected to my love of art and creating.

I was also encouraged to defend or advocate for the rights and appropriate treatment of myself and others. I have vivid memories, of getting in trouble, especially in school, for the right to speak my mind and claim my agency over my body and voice. I objected to middle school boys who slapped the derriere’s or snapped the bras of the girls they “liked”.  I recollect the sting of the slap and my disappointment, as the school’s vice-principal referred to these personal infringements, as love-taps. I remember the anger welling up inside me, from being chastised and or punished for yelling at or chasing the perpetrator.  It was clear that the boys were not held to the same standards of behavior as the girls.  These and other experiences throughout my childhood unveiled deep-seated gender variances and stirred a desire to explore the underpinnings of gender inequality, which is embedded throughout my artwork.

During my graduate experience at Howard University, I was exposed to different philosophers and their views.  In fact, the renowned debate between Black philosophers, Alain LeRoy Locke, and W.E.B. Du Bois regarding art as a form of individualistic and aesthetic expression, or art as propaganda to contribute to racial advancement and group expression was particularly meaningful for me.  This debate further reinforced the importance and privilege of my own creativity and creative process.  Using my art to give voice to others and further define my agency as women of color became even more fundamental.

N: How did visiting and living for a short time in Puerto Rico influence your work? How does this series titled A Place of Breath and Birth differ from your previous artwork?

A: I have wanted to create work about PR for most of my adult life. Growing up in the states away from most of my family and Caribbean life has fostered a longing for a pilgrimage to Puerto Rico, Antigua, Tortola, BVI, and eventually trace my roots to Africa. I initiated this process in September 2016, by reaching out to Edwin Velazquez Collazo, founder/writer of the art-blog, Puerto Rico Art News, and shared my art portfolio and my desire to exhibit in PR.  Since then, we checked in periodically, and in late 2018, Edwin identified an opportunity and put me in contact with you Norma Vila, (director of the Gallery) of the Galeria de Arte in Universidad del Sagrado de Corazón.

After visiting in September and November 2019, I decided to return to the island in early 2020 to live temporarily. Being in PR allowed me to focus on cultivating a specific atmosphere and environment to create and live within. I choose a third-floor apartment with two bedrooms and a sunroom and awarded myself the largest and brightest room —the sunroom— as my studio. It has four large windows and exposure to three-dimensional light every hour of the day. We filled the studio with about thirty-eight variations of plants, a futon, a printer, a storage shelf, and of course my artwork. While sitting on my futon I could watch the palm trees bend and dance to the shifts and variances of the changing weather. The standing view revealed both my immediate block life, vibrancy, greenery, music, and the loud barking little dogs below. Because I can see above all the other two-story buildings, I have an expanded vista, about 3-5 miles out, I can see the outdoor portion of the Tren Urbano, PR’s transit system. Then, about 15-20 miles away, I can see the outer fringe of city-life with looming lights and high rises.

These variances of space, environments, and time influenced this body of artwork by effecting my interpretation of and relationship to spatiality.  In these pieces, I convey both my internal feelings and external environment by the layer of materials so that they create divisions depicting various planes of existence throughout these compositions.  This formula allowed me to manifest multiple representations of atmospheric ecosystems. My time in PR provided the environment and time, to focus on expanding my perspective of and a sense of ownership of self, of land, culture, and of elements through the landscape. In this context, my commitment to sketch at least every other day, yielded sketches, primarily a combination of line drawings and geometric shapes, which lead to sacred geometry like renderings and some figuration. Later, these sketches from integral parts of the overall design of the entire series. 

N: Sometimes as artists we devise a platform and strategies that later require adapting the idea to the circumstances. This project has not been unrelated to circumstances beyond our control (earthquakes, power outages, COVID-19). Do you consider that these circumstances have had an impact on the development of your work, be it emotional, mental, or cultural?

A: I have had to be malleable in my behavior and expectations regarding this exhibition and about the circumstances that impacted this endeavor. However, my level of commitment to the process and the incremental revelations that surfaced during my time in PR were so defining and nourishing, I had no choice but to move forward.

N: Referring to the title of your project A Place of Breath and Birth. Do you still think Puerto Rico is a place of breath? And, if so, in what sense?

Puerto Rico will always be my Place of Breath and Birth, and I welcome opportunities to continue to learn about, build community and experiences to further know that part of myself and heritage. 

I also become aware that, I am imprinted by my mom’s memories of her childhood home. During my visit, I witnessed the change in accent and the increased level of attachment and comfort she felt in PR.  Apparently, this was also observed by you, Norma (director of the Gallery), I remember you mentioned that she sounded more Puerto Rican every day on the island. I think I also witnessed the charm of the island through the way my mother felt – how she cooked, danced, and delighted in her Afro-Latinity; all the things that have influenced my sense of identity. 

COVID-19 Times 

N: How was your studio practice interrupted by the lockdown?  How has your work changed because of the lockdown?  

A: Yes, there was an interesting continuum of things in life that impacted my production in the studio, in my life, and even in the planning of this project during these first months of 2020. I used the first phase of my residency on the island to locate my house and my studio in Puerto Rico, which took longer than expected due to the tremors. Once I was located in my apartment, I began the second phase; exploring, photographing, and searching for resources to incorporate into the art. Then, the lockdown happened, and another level of limitations ensued.

In Puerto Rico, the quarantine was extremely strict. Most businesses were required to shut down. Only, the local government, supermarkets, some restaurants (mostly fast food establishments), and pharmacies could remain open. I could no longer go to the art supplies store when I needed supplies. Yet, I still had deadlines to meet for upcoming exhibitions and or projects. I had to conform myself to using whatever was already in my possession to create this body of artwork.

N: What are you working on right now?

A: Right now, I am working on artwork for my solo exhibition, Secession, at Katzen Center, in the American University in September 2020. The Place of Breath and Birth series will also be a part of that exhibit.  This exhibit will also include the other set of artworks, 8-10 quilts, I worked on while in PR.

N: What are you reading, both online and off?  

A: I am not an avid book reader. More often, I listen to audiobooks and or listen to informational videos. I also spend a lot of time reading online articles about art in general from a select number of online art publications: https://hyperallergic.com, https://bmoreart.com and https://www.artsy.net. Daily, I read numerous online articles and posts about current issues, such as politics and social justice issues and happenings.

N: Have you visited any good virtual exhibitions recently?

A: I was drawn in by the work of María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Untitled, from the series When I am not Here, Estoy allá, 1996. The exhibit also features artwork by James A. Porter and Carmen Lomas Garza. Eye to I: Self Portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. With the term “self-conscious” as its starting point, the exhibition Eye to I is a cherry-picking of self-portraits by major artists in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

With the term “self-conscious” as its starting point, the exhibition Eye to I is a cherry-picking of self-portraits by major artists in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. With a wide range of depictions spanning over a century, this thoughtful presentation straddles themes from cultural identity to body positivity. Catch up with it in this six-minute video tour.

N: Have you taken up any new hobbies?  

A: Honestly, although I am now back in DC and I have not had the time to start a new hobby yet. Most of my time is divided into creating artwork, administrative tasks, cooking, grocery shopping, exercising, and spending time with my family and loved ones.

N: What is the first place you want to travel to once this is over?                

A: Huh, that is a good question. Since 2015, I have traveled to Thailand, Italy, Miami, Morocco, and Puerto Rico. So, although I absolutely welcome the opportunity to travel again, I do not have a specific place in mind as of right now.  Future plans include continuing my familial pilgrimage, by spending more time in Puerto Rico, visiting Tortola, and then tracing my African roots.

N: If you are feeling stuck while self-isolating, what is your best method for getting unstuck? 

A: I am fortunate that my self-isolation has included my boyfriend and my mother, brother, and niece who live a few blocks away.  So, when I am feeling stuck or frustrated, we go for a walk, visit family, plant some plants, or simply watch a good Science Fiction movie. 

N: What was the last TV show, movie, or YouTube video you watched?  

A: Right now, we are watching the Star Trek Discovery series. In mid-May we gathered at my mom’s house on a Sunday evening and made a YouTube collection of the songs she would play (vinyl long-playing 45s records) on either Saturday or Sunday mornings before we did our chores.  This collection included songs from when we were between 5 to 17 years of age.  Among them are: “I love Trash”, “ I left my Cookies at the Disco” by the Sesame Street crew; three of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 chartbusters: Fast Car and Talkin’ Bout a Revolution, and Mountains o’ Things. On the Latin side we focused on Juan Luis Guerra y 440’s Ojalá que llueva Café, Bachata Rosa, and Burbujas De Amor; and Puerto Rican Yomo Torro’s “Don’t Bury my Clothes”.

Alma Thomas’ Apollo 12 “Splash Down,” 1970

N: If you could have one famous work of art with you, what would it be?

A: I would love to live with Alma Thomas’ Apollo 12 “Splash Down,” 1970.  I was eight years old when I first saw Alma Thomas work.  My mom, then a student at Georgetown University, was taken a course on African American Art, which included a project to see Thomas’ work exhibited at Howard University.  My mom says I stood in front of her work—my eyes huge while holding my breath—mesmerized by her work. 

N: What are you most looking forward to doing once social distancing has been lifted?

A: Recently, I have been craving tuna salad sandwiches from El Meson or the “Tres Leches” dessert at La Casita Blanca, local bastions of Puerto Rico’s Cocina Criolla (traditional Puerto Rican cuisine). Also, I hope that I can attend my opening at American University in fall, 2020.