Entangled Nature: Lionel Cruet and Lina Puerta at AON
The Bronx Museum is pleased to announce Entangled Nature: Lionel Cruet and Lina Puerta in partnership with AON. Located at AON at One Liberty Plaza in downtown Manhattan, Entangled Nature features the works of Lionel Cruet and Lina Puerta that explore the complex relationship between humans and nature. With a research-based, interdisciplinary practice ranging from experimental printing to audiovisual installations, Puerto-Rico-born artist Cruet creates work that examines ecological, geopolitical, and technological issues, as well as their intersections. For instance, Cruet’s Dusk/Daybreak is a series of digital prints that capture the transitions of daylight through the use of pigmented gradations, focusing on the ecology of coastal spaces.
The imagery in Puerta’s work draws from her experience as Colombian-American, examining the relationship between the natural world and the human-made, in particular reconnecting in meaningful and spiritual ways. Her sculptural works feature anatomical and botanical elements, comprising various materials, including clay, wood, fabric, artificial plants, paper pulp, sequins, jewelry, and recycled items. Puerta’s work engages with notions of femininity, indigeneity, and ancestral knowledge, as well as grapples with ideas of consumerism, power, and xenophobia.
In partnership with AON, this exhibition is organized by Eileen Jeng Lynch, Director of Curatorial Programs at The Bronx Museum. With the support of AON, the artists receive a generous honorarium, exhibition support, and a year-long presentation at AON’s offices at One Liberty Plaza in downtown Manhattan.
Image:
From left: Lina Puerta, Mēãbema V from the Botánico Series, 2021 and Lionel Cruet, Shade of Paradise, 2015. Installation view of Entangled Nature at AON.
About the Artists:
Lionel Cruet was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and he lives and works in New York City and San Juan. Cruet has had recent solo exhibitions and projects at the San Patricio Art Center (SPACE), Guaynabo, Puerto Rico (2022); El Lobi in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2021); Yi Gallery, Brooklyn (2021); Lincoln Center Education and Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, New York (2017); and Bronx River Art Center (2015). His work has been included in exhibitions at The French Embassy, New York (2019), Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens (2017), The Bronx Museum (2017), and the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse (2017), to name a few. Cruet promotes art and aesthetic education for inner city immigrant youth, and he also co-founded banasta: residencia artistica, an independent organization in Puerto Rico that helps artists develop their production through residency and art criticism sessions. Cruet received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from La Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño en Puerto Rico, Master of Fine Arts in Digital Interdisciplinary Art Practice (DIAP) from The City College of New York – CUNY, and Master’s in Education from the College of Saint Rose. Cruet was a 2016 Bronx Museum AIM Fellow.
lionelcruet.com
gallery-yi.com
Lina Puerta was born in New Jersey, raised in Colombia, and she lives and works in New York. Puerta has exhibited nationally and internationally. Puerta recently had a solo exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx (2022), a survey at Hunter East Harlem Gallery, New York (2021–2022), and solo shows at The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, New York (2021), and Smack Mellon, Brooklyn (2018), to name a few. Puerta’s work has also been exhibited at the Barns Art Center; Ford Foundation Gallery; The Museum of Biblical Art; El Museo del Barrio; Socrates Sculpture Park; Wave Hill; 21C Museum Hotels in Louisville, KY and Bentonville, AR; Pi Artworks in London; and Ponce+Robles in Spain. Puerta’s work has been written about in Hyperallergic, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, and Artnet News, among others. Puerta holds an MS in Art Education from CUNY. linapuerta.net
