URBAN EXPERIENCES
The urban experience is crucial to El Museo, whose history is rooted in the neighborhood of East Harlem. This theme builds around histories of community self-determination and cultural expression, exploring the work of photographers such as the En Foco collective, who documented Latino life in New York since the 1970s. This section also considers city fragments and objects found in the streets, and used as material by artists like East Harlem resident Gregorio Márzan or as inspiration for Lucia Hierro’s vernacular Rack: Platanitos sculpture. Expanding beyond New York, other artworks explore cityscapes throughout the Americas, ranging from Asilia Guillén’s Lake Managua to Sylvia de Leon Chalreo’s painting of people taking to the streets of Rio de Janeiro.