About a month ago I mentioned in an earlier post. A close friend of mine, Paloma Zapata made her mark on the art scene. Overjoy is the best way to describe my feeling when she told me her work got approval to showcase in an art gallery. The name of the show is This Hair, This Skin, This Body by Artsy Window. The theme of the event is reflecting a vow to body confidence while tying into a story about cultural history. The gallery is full with Millennials making their voice known, in a time where we need it most.

Unfortunately, myself among many Millennials of color are currently in a year where extremists get a round of applause, and our president overlooks white supremacy. Not only is it a race issue, but it’s a gender issue too. Women seem to lose their voice, in our transition of presidents in addition to the first lady. I usually don’t prowl on politics, but it’s become incredibly hard not to ignore.

Luckily events such as Artsy Window: This Hair, This Skin, This Body, allow us to have a voice. The event host is Kiara Ventura, a young curator who believes in making a supportive and open space in local communities of New York City. The open space is to help raise the voices of those needing to be heard. It is great to see how people can take different forms of art and showcase their opinion on this subject. Some presenters have painted on canvas, posters and others framed their work on glossy paper. Other types of art are photography backgrounds and a series of reconstructed clothing. They were also a small collection of essential oils to help resemble womanhood.

Not only were there unbelievable pieces of artwork to see people also recited poetry and rap.  A form of artistic expression that stood out to me is performance art. I saw a few performance art shows, but I never could relate to it. Video artist Caseena Karim explains her take on being women of color in the community and how she is making a change in performance arts. As this form of art usually involves people with a  Caucasian background, she wants to make it more relatable to the rest of the world. It is fascinating to me to see something different. I hope her work becomes more visible in the performance art community, so other people of color can appreciate it too.

Another one of my favorite pieces is of course from my friend Paloma Zapata. Her first piece is a self-portrait, and I believe it has an amazing effect of looking like an old-school film photo negative. Another one of her creation is a tribute to her Bolivian heritage and her childhood memory. She restores her childhood memory showcasing the “virgencita.” Virgencita is the Spanish term for the religious symbol known as Virgin Mary.

Artsy Window

You can watch Arsty Window: This Skin, This Hair, This body event below:

I strongly enjoy the freedom of speech from every artist in the artsy window gallery. I hope the founder continue creating more art series that I can attend too.

*This post is not sponsored.