Artforo Presents Book “Contemporary Art in Santo Domingo”

Santo Domingo, November 27, 2018 – Art critic and curator Amable López Meléndez will formally present his book “Contemporary Art in Santo Domingo (non-official translation) on Monday, December 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Santo Domingo’s Palace of Fine Arts. The book amply discusses the “scope, precision and strength” of the artistic production and careers of Dominican artists that are currently in full creative mode.
The book launching event will take place simultaneously with the opening of a collective art exhibit that will feature some of the contemporary artists that are highlighted in the book.
“With this book we first began with the selection process. At the same time, the process led to a process of reflection of the Dominican plastic and visual arts in the last three decades. The book is the first volume of a critical-poetic production through which I intend to speculate on the high levels of expressive synthesis, the effective aesthetic and the richness in metaphors that, from my point of view, are eloquent elements of the plastic and visual arts of the present,” explained López Meléndez.
In the introductory chapter, titled “Feasibility & Possibility of Contemporary Dominican Art “ (non-official translation), the renowned art critic comments on “the need to immediately proceed to the transformation of the bureaucratic spaces of disillusionment, factuality and the impossible, and strengthen the articulation of politics, strategies and actions that will be responsible for the effective projection of our artistic and cultural manifestations as a country brand; as a global dimension and essential to everything Dominican…”
“Contemporary Art in Santo Domingo” is an editorial project sponsored by Artforo, an artistic and cultural platform founded in New York City by Oscar Abreu, a visual artist and cultural agent. The 300-page hardcover book, designed by Alescar Ortiz and illustrated with more than 200 illustrations. The book includes 26 critical essays on the works and careers of such Dominican artists as Aquiles Azar Billini, Geo Ripley, Iris Pérez Romero, Rosalba Hernández, Raúl T. Morilla, Máximo Caminero, Kikito Rodríguez, Gómez, Marcia Guerrero, Aurora Díaz, José Almonte, Joaquín Rosario, Wilson Abreu, Oscar Abreu, Lucía Méndez Rivas, Ricardo Wagner, Junior Reyes Ocre, Manuel Nina Cisneros, Pamela Rivera, Pilar Asmar and Carlos García Baret.
The presentation of “Contemporary Art in Santo Domingo, Volume I” will be the responsibility of curator and art critic Abil Peralta Agüero, director of the Cultural Office of the Chamber of Deputies.
“Amable López Meléndez’ critique is the critique of the period we are living, eminently contemporary, reflecting the 21st century which is based on architecture, objective thinking, vision and ideology of the author of “Les Fleurs du mal” (Charles Baudelaire, 1821-1867). He conjugates passion, criticism, and ideological and conceptual ideology,” highlights Peralta Agüero in the publication’s prologue.
Peralta Agüero highlights the impressive trajectory of the author as critic and curator. “The selected texts in this first volume express the experience and the depth of the personal critical vision of Amable López Meléndez… All together it is the sum of a torrential rain that associates, connects and links the work of the poet and art critic based on the sensitivity of his overall vision.”
Peralta Agüero considers this publication as a “late step taken in the just recognition of a life dedicated to knowledge, Reading and deciphering the various phenomenon and mysterious stages involved in a work of art, the mind and thoughts of the artists.”