Reynaldo Rivera: Fistful of Love/También la belleza
MoMA PS1 – Until Sep 09, 2024 Long Island City – New York (US)
This spring, MoMA PS1 presents the first solo museum exhibition of artist Reynaldo Rivera (b. 1964, Mexicali, Mexico), including iconic works and never-before-seen photographs from his archive. The presentation features over forty black-and-white and color photographs that span the 1980s through today, alongside a film newly edited from Hi8 footage. Raised between Mexicali, Los Angeles, Stockton, Pasadena, and San Diego de la Unión, Rivera eventually settled in Echo Park, and into the artistic and activist milieu around post-punk. A self-taught photographer, Rivera’s first subjects were those closest to him, including his sisters, who remained muses for decades. His work is informed by the drama and deep emotion of boleros and rancheras, the glamour of Old Hollywood and the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, and predecessors like Brassaï and Cartier-Bresson.
Intercultural bohemia.
The artist’s pictures of an everyday intercultural bohemia—whether staged or captured behind the scenes—reveal their subjects as they desire to be seen: as stars in a film of their own making. Canonizing lovers, sisters, and idols, both famous (Annie Lennox, Daniel Martínez) and lesser-known (Cindy Gomez, Ceri Zamora), Rivera skilfully harnesses available light to expose even the darkest corridors.
MoMA PS1→ 22-25 Jackson Avenue Long Island City – New York, NY, USA 11101
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