Curatorial Statement

Conversaciones con Manuel, Conversations with Manuel: The Queer Legacy of Manuel Ramos Otero.

Through an autobiographical lens of self-reflection, Conversaciones con Manuel (Conversations with Manuel) invites four, Puerto Rican male artists to establish a conversation with the life and work of the Puerto Rican writer and poet Manuel Ramos Otero (1948-1990). Otero emerged as one of the most important Puerto Rican writers and poets at the end of the twentieth century, and perhaps, its best-known queer writer and poet. The exhibition explores masculinities through the use of imagined cartographies; the mapping of the queer body; desire, the politics of the closet, AIDS, death, feminism, exile, and colonialism (all subjects of importance to Otero’s work).

 Imagined cartographies are understood as “those methods of mapping literary space that generate both imaginative and culturally revealing understandings of recognizable and/or created worlds and their modes of habitation.” (Imaginary Cartographies, Karen Jacobs (Ed), 52.1, Spring/Summer 2014, University Press of Colorado.) The work generated by these 4 artists explores, establish, confront and gives voice to subjects and themes which preoccupied Otero throughout his life.; Such themes include the linking of the personal and the artistic self in relationship to the history of the Caribbean archipelago, specifically Puerto Rico, and its colonial status-the human body- -death and the construction of masculinity in Latinx culture - ( one that occupies complex, contested spaces where fact and myth merge in a series of historical, imagined, and imposed expectations that shape it.) A masculinity heavily influenced by religion, deeply rooted in heteronormative, and patriarchal structures with its attendant myths and dogmas.

The exhibition features painting, photography, video, sound, music, and poetry allowing the viewer to reflect on Otero's work and the responses to his work and legacy by the exhibition's invited artists.

Conversaciones con Manuel will be on view in Gallery 1 at Da Vinci Art Alliance starting May 30 until June 23. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, June 1, from 4-7 pm and there will be a live nude performance (Time TBD).

Jose Luis Cortés is known for his artwork inspired by his time in New York City in the early 1990’s. Cortés’ very personal work reflects the underbelly of gay life – documenting a life on the fringes of society: of sex workers, addiction, and of a changing landscape. He is an artist whose work, validates his world and voices his identity as both a gay man and as a Puerto Rican. José Luis Cortés was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Puerto Rican parents. His family moved to Puerto Rico when he was three years old, and he lived there until the age of 28, when he moved to New York City. 

While living in NYC in the late 1990s, the gay porn industry became José Luis’s obsession. He spent several years documenting this industry from the inside out. He performed as a stripper at Eros I, the first gay male porn theater in the United States. During intermissions of his performance José Luis would step out to photograph the then soon-to-be destroyed theaters and porn section of Times Square’s “renewal” (or “Disneyfication”) plan set in motion by NYC’s mayor Rudy Giuliani from which an expansive body of work emerged in the form of paintings. This work ranges from life-size monumental pieces to smaller paintings made on newsprint. The short-lived nature and deceptive fragility of newspaper is the ideal medium to document the context in which José Luis’ life and art happen. 

José Luis’ work has been exhibited internationally, at museums in Amsterdam, London, Berlin, New York, Madrid among other locations. His work has received reviews in the New York Times, Art in America, and Out Magazine.  José Luis is also an AIDS activist. He was a founding member of The Archive Project and was included in the landmark exhibition, The First Ten (1995) which showed the work of ten artists living with AIDS: a collaboration between the Archive Project and Visual AIDS in NYC. 

His work has also been reviewed in various publications such as The New York Times, Art in America, and Out Magazine. José Luis is also an AIDS activist. 

He had a solo exhibition at Taller Puertorriqueño Blanco y Negro (Black and White) Gay and Boricua the Art of Jose Luis Cortés, and more recently, he has shown work at MAC Gallery in PR and this past October he was one of several artists included in RADICAL PERVERTS curated by Alexis H, at the Sex Museum in NYC. 

He has worked in film and has presented at queer film festivals, among his films are Criando un Pato, (Raising a Fag). His series of films Hablame Sucio, (Talk Dirty to Me) explores fetishism and includes the award-winning film CASH MASTER, he is a published poet, and performance artist. Both his work and mediums continue to reflect the complexity of his life history as a gay man and artist.

Gerard Silva, is a text artist, writer, community organizer and educator. He was born and raised in the streets of Rio Piedras, PR, amongst Boricuas and Quisqueyanos and the students and professors of the Universidad de Puerto Rico. The constant struggle on the island due to colonialism and the oppression of la gente shaped Gerard’s future work in the arts. After obtaining a degree in Communications and Visual Arts in New York, and living in Madrid and London, Gerard obtained a degree in photography in Arizona. It was then that he changed his focus and fully realized the impact of language and text in our daily lives and how it can evoke emotions in an instant. His practice completely changed and he began delving into the field of sociolinguistics and exploring the world of text in English, Spanish and Spanglish. The work of women artists such as Yoko Ono, Jenny Holzer, and Barbara Krueger, as well as his first job as art director in the oldest advertising agency in the US, shaped his art practice and were the foundation for his current works of art.

Gerard works at Fleisher Art Memorial as the Director of Exhibitions and Community Outreach. He organizes community and cultural events for immigrant communities including El Día de los Muertos, the Indonesian Festival, El Mercado Cultural and oversees the prestigious Wind Challenge Exhibitions for emerging artists in our region. He also serves on many art committees in the region and works and supports many immigrant, queer, and POC led organizations in Philadelphia.

Daniel de Jesús is a painter, composer, and songwriter versed in the worlds of visual & sonic tapestries. De Jesús’ work follows medieval and baroque archetypes, infused with Latin American stylings with a penchant for Pre-Raphaelite yearnings. de Jesús finds inspiration from historical figures like mystics, scholars, artists, and martyrs; all of these are their muses. 

Daniel de Jesús has nine studio recordings of their music and performs with orchestras and rock bands in the region and worldwide. Their current projects include collaborations with painter and performance artist David Antonio Cruz, White Box Theater, and The Bearded Ladies Cabaret.

They are currently the director of music education at AMLA (Artistas y Músicos Latinoamericanos) a music school focused on Latin music education for youth in the Philadelphia area. 

Learn more at danieldejesus.art and @dejesuscello 

German Ayala Vazquez is a photographer and visual artist originally hailing from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, raised in Upstate New York and now based in Philadelphia. His artistic practice encompasses a diverse range of photographic styles, including fashion, conceptual, and photojournalistic approaches. His primary aim is to illuminate and uplift the narratives and experiences of BIPOC LGBTQIA+ individuals worldwide, to seek and capture Queer Joy and Acceptance with a particular emphasis on regions historically affected by colonization. 

German brings a unique and authentic perspective to his work, enabling brands and publishers to convey their messages with a genuine and culturally attuned vision. Notable among his  recent clientele are esteemed entities such as Condé Nast, Apple, Barrons Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, Shutterstock, and many more.

His educational background includes a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in photography from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over the course of his career, he has garnered awards and grants from renowned institutions such as Profoto, Nikon, the Shutterstock Creator Fund, Creative PHL Illuminate the Arts, and Wacom. He is also honored to have been recognized with a 2023 Mural Arts Black fellowship in Philadelphia, The 2023 Fitler Club Residency, is a 2023 DEAI Alumni Awards Recipient, and finalist in the 2022 Lens culture Portrait Awards, and has earned features in numerous publications, including PhotoVogue. 

His personal artistic endeavors have been widely showcased through various exhibitions, most notably the 2024 Black Art Biennial in Brazil, the Mural Arts 2024 Fellows Exhibition, and more. He has held concurrent solo exhibitions in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rio De Janeiro, and Philadelphia.