WILMINGTON, DE.- The Delaware Art Museum presents Hispanic Lives, Latin Worlds—Simple Complexities (Vidas Hispanas, Mundos Latinos—Simplicidad y Complejidad), an exhibition featuring more than 25 works of art by Hispanic artists, on view through October 12, 2008. While the artists live primarily in the mid-Atlantic region, their ancestry ranges throughout the Latin American countries, including Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Cuba, and Guatemala, as well as Spain. This exhibition is timed to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 through October 15.

The imagery in the exhibition’s prints, paintings, photographs, mixed media works, and installations capture ideas and feelings of universal importance but especially meaningful to Latin Americans today. Included are references to ancient civilizations, nature, spirituality, and the immigration experience. Rather than centering on one subject or style, Hispanic Lives reveals the diversity of Latin American culture by presenting juxtapositions both subtle and easily apparent—young and old, traditional and modern, rural and urban, suffering and triumph. Simplicity and complexity are drawn together and apart, unified by the Spanish language.

The varying colors of four walls and four small panels in the exhibition reflect a project titled Me by Others, Others by Me, created by Peruvian artist Elena Patiño. She met with 20 individuals for one-on-one sessions in which she and the participant sought to capture their respective perceptions of their own, and each other’s skin tones, by mixing paint. Four skin tones were created in each session:

Them by Them—the participant created his/her own skin tone
Me by Them—the participant created Patiño’s skin tone
Them by Me—Patiño created the participant’s skin tone
Me by Me—Patiño created her own skin tone
These skin tones were then painted onto a set of panels. In Hispanic Lives, the gallery’s four wall colors reflect such a set. Four panels are on view, each displayed on a wall of a different color, creating another conceptual and artistic juxtaposition in a visual dialogue about skin color.

Hispanic Lives, Latin Worlds—Simple Complexities is part of the Museum’s Outlooks Exhibition Series, which features exhibitions created by regional organizations, individuals, and community groups that are then hosted by the Museum, furthering our mission to “offer an inclusive and essential community resource.” Hispanic Lives, Latin Worlds was organized in collaboration with the Governor’s Council on Hispanic Affairs. The guest curator is Riccardo Stoeckicht, Vice President of Operations at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware. Stoeckicht previously operated his own art distribution company and has organized numerous exhibitions of Hispanic art.