interview — Pen Game — Jordan Taliha McDonald

Inside the Aims and Aspirations of the New Rubell Museum in Washington, D.C. (Artsy)

After spending more than 50 years building their vast art holdings and laying down permanent roots with the establishment of their Miami museum in 1993, Don and Mera Rubell have expanded their reach once more—this time, in the nation’s capital. Since opening to the public on October 29, 2022, the Washington, D.C., museum is still coming into its identity. Luckily, the Rubells are far from rookies when it comes to establishing longevity in the art world.

The choice of building a second outpost in D.C. as opposed to the usual art hotspots of New York and Los Angeles may come as a surprise to some. And unlike Miami, D.C. is not home to a major circuit of art fairs such as Art Basel or Untitled Art. However, the local art scene is not to be underestimated. “I think this is an exciting time to be in the city. I believe we’re on track to have a few blue chips from within our own local community in a few years,” said D.C.-based art dealer and advisor Chela Mitchell, who founded her namesake Chela Mitchell Gallery. “People are putting on good shows. There are people here doing the work.”

Art, InterviewJordan McDonaldJanuary 19, 2023interview

Artist Profile: Raelis Vasquez (Artsy)

Raelis Vasquez

does not recall being drawn to art prior to his family’s emigration from the Dominican Republic to the United States in 2002. “I don’t think I would be an artist if we hadn’t immigrated,” he told Artsy during a recent video interview. “There’s no reason to be creative unless you have a problem to solve. Immigrating gave me a problem to solve.”

In his current solo show “As We Were”—on view at Sakhile&Me in Frankfurt, Germany—Vasquez tends to the matter of memory as it enables and embattles translation. The exhibition, which features several figurative paintings of his family prior to emigration, transgresses temporal boundaries by situating his family’s past at the center of his contemporary work. For the paintings, Vasquez studied old family photographs—moments captured and safekept to combat the fleeting nature of time. In his masterful artistic recollections of his own life and history in the Americas as an Afro-Dominican artist, Vasquez is earnest in his efforts to represent the Afro-Latinx experience while prizing clarity and realism.

Art, CriticismJordan McDonaldNovember 15, 2021art criticism, interview