Painter Nick Quijano moved to Puerto Rico in 1967, when he was just 16 years old. There, under the guidance of the late painter José Antonio Torres Martinó, he embraced the aesthetics of Caribbean folk art, experimenting with collage, printmaking, furniture design, and, finally, painting. As curator Bobbito Garcia observes, Quijano “is painting for the common people.” His work reverberates with the color and energy of the tropics, and music and movement serve as central themes. Couples dance, elated in city streets, while other people make their away into the pulsing crowd of a disco. An old lady sprawls on her sofa. A market hums with morning heat. “I hope that people can relate to these pieces,” Quijano says, “because they are autobiographical, if not physically or metaphorically, then symbolically.” —E.C.
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Nick Quijano: Memories of Puerto Rico
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Nick Quijano, “Mercado (Market),” 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Fort Gansevoort.
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