While you dried in the sand (palm trees, ocean breeze), 2022, Custom print on beach towel, 38.5 x 77 in.
I’d like to invite you to my solo exhibitionA tropic squall blew in, while you dried in sandon view from May 21 — July 4, 2022at Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center(4900 Independence Ave, Bronx, NY 10471)Curated by Eileen Jeng LynchGallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10am – 5:30pmI hope you can stop by!* * *Through installation and performance, Kevin Quiles Bonilla investigates notions of colonial history and consumption from the perspective of his Latinx cultural heritage, as well as from his lived experience as a queer artist and person with a disability. In the Sunroom, Quiles Bonilla’s ‘A tropic squall blew in, while you dried in the sand’ explores the way that Puerto Rican culture and the tropical landscape are commodified and fetishized for the tourist industry and characterized predominantly as a site of leisure.Blending reality and fantasy, Quiles Bonilla’s project comprises custom-printed beach towels, sling chairs, imagery of Puerto Rico from postcards alongside documentation taken after Hurricane Maria, emergency radio announcements and a sand-covered floor. In the context of Wave Hill, this installation examines the beach, as well as the garden, as politically charged spaces. Quiles Bonilla is an interdisciplinary artist born in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
