Creative Pinellas debuts works by Puerto Rican artists

Opening with a reception Saturday at the Gallery at Creative Pinellas, Keepers of Heritage: Hidden Tales exhibits the work of 20 Puerto Rican artists, from the 1950s to the present day.

It’s a presentation by an Orlando-based collective called Keepers of Heritage (Custodios de la Herencia), co-founded by artist Angel Rivera Morales, originally from Caimito, San Juan. He moved to Florida with his family in 2012.

Valentin Tirado Barreto, Rebellion of the slaves, acrylic on canvas, undated.

The collective began three years later. “At least in Central Florida, there was a lack of representation for artists of Puerto Rican descent in museum institutions,” Morales explains. “We first exhibited under the title La Diaspora in Orlando City Hall. And then we started working to take the collective to other places.

“As the director, I envisioned the program as a platform to share the opportunity with master artists from Puerto Rico who were not recognized here in the United States.”

That includes Domingo García, who was active in the 1950s (“one of the most productive periods in Puerto Rican art,” Morales says), 1960s artists Rafael Rivera Rosa, Carmelo Fontanez Cortijo and Pablo Rubio; and those from the contemporary generation, including exhibit curator Yasir Nieves, Carmen Rojas Gines, Martin García Rivera and Angel Rivera Morales himself.

It’s all the evolving product, he reports, of “a generational chain of mentoring and education.”

Luis Soto, Nube, Air Brush on canvas 2023.

Keepers of Heritage: Hidden Tales includes paintings, drawings, sculpture and photography.

Morales and Nieves work together to populate each iteration of he exhibit. “Whenever we have an opportunity like this we study the place, we study the space, we study the concept that we want to give to each presentation,” Morales says. “Yasir then gets into a process where he decides, what’s the message of this presentation? We then put together a collection that is balanced, is cohesive as a unit and works with the space.”

So what do they mean by Hidden Tales? What’s the message?

“We understand that every artist has a story, and since most of these artists are under-represented in the mainstream, their stories have not been documented. Or presented as part of the main narrative. Every artist has a different story that needs to be portrayed, and needs to be told.”

Saturday’s reception (6-8 p.m.) will feature food, and live music by the local band Cukiara. Find all the pertinent details here.

Gilbert Salinas, Among the Chaos, Mixed media on canvas 2020.