NEVER WAIT! / ¡NUNCA ESPERES!
Photo: Cevallos Brothers photo by Cevallos Brothers
Organized by Blanka Amezkua
Show runs April 13th - June 8th 2024
Participating Artists: Alva G. Calymayor, Jessica Lagunas, Damali Abrams, Michelle Frick, Sotiris Papanikolaou, Hilario Alonso, Marion Fischer, Angeliki Douveri, Mary Cox, Marco Saavedra, Vidal Centeno, Julio Rodriguez, Leenda Bonilla, Luis A. Pagan, Olga Correa, Paul Lambermont, Devin Osorio, Néstor Pérez-Molière, Jake Alfieri, Panagiotis Voulgaris, Katherine Miranda, Darryl Ebanks, Kephera Nuru Ife
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 13th at 5:30 pm
RSVP for Opening Reception HERE
Artist Talk Saturday, May 11th / 4:30 pm
RSVP for Artist Talk
BRAC is proud to announce the upcoming exhibition, Never Wait! / ¡Nunca Esperes!. This exhibition showcases the Bronx’s visual arts community in a distinctive light that sets it apart from the rest of NYC. Running from April 13 to June 8, 2024, Never Wait! / ¡Nunca Esperes! offers a glimpse into over a decade of alternative artist-run endeavors that have blossomed from the South Bronx to Athens, Greece. Produced by Bronx-based Mexican-American Artist, project initiator, and organizer Blanka Amezkua, the show will spotlight her efforts to foster dialogue and advocate for multicultural perspectives and non-traditional modes of art practice.
Photo: Blanka Amezkua installing in BRAC Gallery.
This show brings together artists from five manifestations of Amezkua’s cultural work: The Bronx Blue Bedroom Project (BBBP), a pioneering artist-run initiative in her bedroom that ran from 2008-2010, Alexander Avenue Apartment 3A (AAA3A), an alternative space offering food, dialogue, workshops, and art, which Amezuka has been producing in her unfurnished South Bronx living room since 2016, Fo Kia Nou 24/7, a project space in an intimate apartment in the center of Athens, Greece that encouraged creative collaboration between Greek and foreign artists from 2014 to 2016, 8 to 8: State of Creative Emergency, an initiative where creative minds are invited to construct and realize a unique project and execute it for 12 hours straight; from 8am to 8pm, and 3///3...three walls on wednesday, an alternative initiative to exhibit art from national and international artists in Athens, Greece.
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Photo: OLGA CORREA by Argenis Apolinario
A zine publication highlighting the artists and artwork of Amezkua’s many initiatives will accompany the exhibition. The zine will be available at BRAC and other cultural institutions around the Bronx.
Never Wait! / ¡Nunca Esperes! aspires to spark dialogue, inspire engagement, and deepen appreciation for The Bronx's cultural heritage and its connections to the international art world. The collaboration between Amezkua and BRAC strives to shed light on the phenomena of alternative artist-run spaces within our vibrant community.
Our “face” to the community, and the city at large, is our exhibitions program, which offers five or more annual exhibitions of energetic contemporary art in our ground-floor, 2,000 sq. ft. gallery. This program has become known for both its deft curatorial vision and its ability to produce ambitious and challenging exhibitions with ingenuity and immediacy. We strive to expose various paradigms of contemporary art to the litmus test of our local Bronx community and the cultural, economic, and social landscape that defines it.
BRAC’s exhibitions are designed to affect cultural and social change through art that is both innovative and educational. We support our guest curators to present fresh arts experiences to the Bronx while nurturing our local talent. A focus of our vision is to blur the lines between professional art practice and community self-expression. Many of the artists we show embrace a social-practice mode of operation that is as much about making a sociopolitical statement as it is about creating a resonant visual experience. For each exhibit, we include community engagement activities such as tours, panels, and workshops, as well as mixers and virtual art productions that align with the pulse of our community.