The Taller Boricua is pleased to announce four solo exhibitions by: Keith O. Anderson, Melissa A. Calderon, William Coronado & Chanika Svetvilas

Curated by Marcos Dimas and Christine Licata

Keith O. Anderson creates site-specific installations and objects that transform unassuming materials such as raisins, cotton puffs, black-eyed peas, clothespins and straight pins into an unconventional visual vocabulary of social and political critique and commentary. In “Matière Première / Raw Material,” Anderson’s work reveals the transitory relationships and nature of everyday items and symbols, offering unexpected meanings and insights into the world around us.

In “Osmosis,” Melissa A. Calderon incorporates installation, photography and sculpture to explore the concepts of multicultural identity and gender. Her work examines the stereotypes and the controversial symbols of the transnational Latino experience. Calderon integrates the duality present in acculturation by paying homage to the significant contributions and traditions of Latino culture, as well as challenging the negative, commercialized ideologies that have become synonymous with it.

In William Coronado’s paintings, flesh becomes the medium through which the boundaries between the metaphysical and the physical aspects of human existence are explored. At once gestural and corporeal, his exhibition “Skin Deep” simultaneously embodies the psychology of existence and the biology of being. Through a combination of distortion and representation, Coronado challenges the viewer to experience separate realities as well as reexamine the broader issues of identity and gender.

Chanika Svetvilas’ site-specific installation “Import / Export,” uses familiar commercial and domestic objects and materials such as toy soldiers, rubber gloves and plastic, plaid shopping bags as metaphors to transcribe the cultural and social challenges within migration and immigration. Her multidisciplinary work also includes layers of international corporate logos merged with global branding. These iconic, self-referential symbols reveal the paradoxical relationships between consumerism, commodities, transculturation and ultimately, globalization.

Keith O. Anderson is a sculptor, photographer, installation and multi-media artist based in New York City. His work has been exhibited internationally and in the United States including I Space (Chicago), Chicago Cultural Center, Galerie Christine Marquet de Vasselot (Paris), Rush Arts Gallery (New York), Power House Memphis, Longwood Art Gallery (New York), Evanston Art Center, Riverside Art Center, Crooked Tree Arts Center (Petoskey, Michigan), Klein Arts Works (Chicago), 16th Evanston and Vicinity Biennial, 44th Salon Montrouge, Art Junction International (Nice), Galerie du Jour, Agnès b., (Paris) and the FIAC International Art Fair (Paris). In 2008, Anderson was awarded the Urban Artist Initiative /NYC Fellowship.

Melissa A. Calderon incorporates installation, photography, sculpture and video in her work. She received her B.A. in Art History from CUNY Lehman College and lives and works in the Bronx, New York City. Calderon has exhibited at El Museo del Barrio (New York), The Portland Museum of Art, Affirmation Arts (New York), BBBP / Bronx Blue Bedroom Project (New York), Portland Museum of Art Biennial, Haven Arts Space (Bronx), Arte Americas (Fresno), Longwood Arts Project (New York) and The Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York).

William Coronado is a painter and video artist. He received a B.S. and B.F.A from New Jersey City University. Coronado has shown in numerous exhibitions including Chashama 135 Gallery (New York), Jadite Gallery (New York), Seton Hall University (New Jersey), Silk Mill Arts Building (New Jersey), Atlantic Gallery (New York), Montclair Museum, Puffin Foundation (Teaneck) and the Sumei Multidisciplinary Arts Center (Newark). He has received the Karen Myers Ziccardi Art Award (2005) and the Newark Municipal Council 9th Annual Art Exhibit Award (2002). His work has been published in numerous journals and periodicals including New American Paintings, Oranges and Sardines, The Encyclopedia Latina and The Gothic Times. Coronado is currently a professor at the Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts.

Chanika Svetvilas creates multidisciplinary, often collaborative, interactive, and site-specific art installations. Her work has been exhibited in public art projects in Brooklyn as well as the Asian Arts Initiative (Philadelphia), Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (New York), Brooklyn Public Library (New York), ABC NoRio (New York), International Resource Center in Flushing (New York), Lower East Side Tenement Museum (New York), the Queens Museum of Art (New York), Denver International Airport, Gallery Three (New York), and Rotunda Gallery (New York). She has received grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council (New York) and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum (New York) and has held residencies at BCAT/Brooklyn Community Access Television and UpSet Press (New York). She received a B.S. in studio art from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York and currently lives and works in New York.

Taller Boricua / The Puerto Rican Workshop is a 40-year old artist-run nonprofit art gallery and multi–disciplinary cultural space in El Barrio. Our mission is to be a proactive institution for the community in East Harlem by offering programs that stimulate its social, cultural and economic development through the promotion of the arts. The center is accessible for individuals with disabilities