Bronx, NY - En Foco and Kreate Hub Bronx are proud to present Entre el Silencio: Meditations on Silence. This exhibition features a curated selection of photographs by artists Daniela Lopez-Amequita, Itzel Basualdo, Jennifer Villanueva, Luis M. Diaz, Odette Chavez-Mayo, and Roy Baizan. Curated by Xavier Robles Armas. The exhibition is part of En Foco’s mission to uplift, validate, and preserve the culture and legacy of diasporic lens-based artists. The exhibition will be on view from December 5, 2024 - April 8, 2025, at KreateHub Bronx located at 15 Canal Pl, Bronx, New York 10451, and virtually at enfoco.org. Public programs will be announced. Click here to RSVP for the opening reception.

A companion exhibition In the Spirit Y En El Espíritu: Works by Mariana Yampolsky featuring archival portraits from the En Foco Archives and Nueva Luz Study Center is currently on view until March 31, 2025, at Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater at 575 Walton Ave, Bronx, New York 10451. 

Photography is a practice of magic, a craft that impacts the world in unpredictable ways and  finds its way into the spirit, shaping our understanding of who we are. It also reveals a psychosocial truth about the photographer, their subject, or both. The Mexican and Mexican-American artists in this exhibition speak through the ordinary, yet fantastical nature of image making. Embedded in the photographs are histories of place, ghostly memories, ritual, and contemplation. The photographers underscore themes of absence that demand to be understood despite their quietness. 

A healthy practice of photography is a relational one. It asks the receiver to understand, and to question. Photographers are asked to offer meaning in a world that often feels nonsensical. Yet it is those around us—our family, our homes, and our loved ones—that shape our life’s work. Our loved ones offer personal, immediate reminders that we exist and that life has meaning. The photographers in this exhibition also attempt to make sense of the world anchored by their loved ones. They ask: What does one make with silence, communion, and stillness? How do we find ourselves by resting and caring for another? And what might the ghostly offer for reflections on memory, space, and embodiment?

The work of these photographers shine light on topics that speak to the Mexican and Mexican-American experience of place which enable us to shift awareness to contemplation, reflection, and a silence that also demands attention and a need to be in our bodies.The quietude found in these images highlight the tensions between aspirations, pain and healing after arriving in a country hostile to immigrants. However, these artists make room for absence through the literal light and aspirations that we collectively hold alongside our loved ones.