Insider Outsider Series: Arta (June 30)

Join us on Sunday, June 30, from 11:00–12:00 pm for the second presentation of InsiderOutsider: New Voices in the Art World, moderated by artist and curator MAGO. InsiderOutsider is intended as a series of conversations featuring underrepresented artists whose works challenge, intrigue, inspire, and offer opportunities for broadening art circles and engaging in creative dialogue.

Arta Brito was born in Ambato, Ecuador (1993). She is a classically trained oil painter  whose work explores gender and queer themes inspired by both personal and current events. Her new body of work is inspired by her own transition and creates a space where transgender people can see themselves represented in the world. The work is a bridge between modern gender constructs and indigenous gender constructs, exploring why they exist in their current form, and how expressions of gender which were once natural have been silenced and distorted. Arta wants viewers to understand that transgender people have been here since the beginning, that they are normal. Allowing for a wider gender spectrum is the human and humane thing to do. The work’s function is to start a dialogue about these ideas.

MAGO was born in New York City on June 5^th, 1982, to Colombian immigrants, weeks after their arrival to the United States.  They nicknamed their “special delivery” MAGO (Spanish for magician/wise man). MAGO is the symbol and signature used by this Latinx installation artist whose gutsy urban education and Latino heritage have developed into a signature style characterized by cross-cultural conversations, becoming the many faces of creativity. MAGO E. Martinez envisions the unimaginable and embodies multiple streams of innovative creation, inspiring culture to another plateau. First as an acclaimed installation artist and now a multifaceted professional with 15+ years of accomplishments, he has successfully labored in a spectrum of areas that allows him to connect with individuals as well as a diverse audience. 

Upcoming InsiderOutsider conversations:

July 7: Lucy Cookson

August 4: Oscar Molina

The InsiderOutsider series is made possible with support from Agnes Gund and the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning and County Legislator Ann Welker.