As an American of Cuban-Chinese descent, Maria Lau’s cultural background and familial separation instilled in her at an early age the paramount importance of cultural preservation. Her artwork and vision are often an exploration in identity and reflection of her multicultural heritage.
Her dedication to her Latin heritage led Lau to study at the University of San Francisco, where she became an archivist of 17th century Jesuit documents for California State University. Furthering her Latin American studies, she expanded into anthropology and landed a grant to work in Mexico. To keep a record of her field studies there, she enrolled in a photography class that completely changed her approach. Lau began experimenting with black and white and infrared, then evolving technically in search of new documentary methods.
“Photography was able to capture and express my inner dialogue in a way that I was never able to do with words,” says Lau. “It’s been a journey of writing history through visual media to enable remembrances of life that would have otherwise been forgotten.”
Lau’s most notable and sought-after works on Cuba are an authentic fusion of personal culture and styles that tell the story of her heritage. Born and living in Jersey City, she views her Cuba series as a long-term documentary project, inspired by the ideal of preserving a Cuban lifestyle she could not be a part of as a child, but of which she often dreamed. Her work can be found in permanent and private collections nationwide and has been selected for publication, profiled in several articles, and included in international exhibitions. www.marialau.com
Raúl Villarreal
A Verona, NJ resident, Raúl Villarreal was born in San Francisco de Paula, Havana, Cuba in 1964. Villarreal emigrated with his family to Madrid, Spain in 1972; two years later, the family moved to the United States, settling in Union City, NJ.
Renowned for using Afro-Cuban imagery and symbolism and surrealistic Cuban imagery, Villarreal has shown his paintings and graphic designs over the past 25 years in 15 solo exhibits and in over 200 group shows in New York metro area, and throughout the United States and abroad. He also has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Latin America for artistic and academic research.
A graduate of New York’s Parsons School of Design and New York Academy of Art’s Graduate School of Figurative Art, Villarreal received his Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Fine Arts from Jersey State College, Jersey City, NJ. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in Graphic Design at The College of St. Elizabeth’s College in Morristown, NJ, and serves on the College’s Advisory Panel for The Therese A. Maloney Art Gallery as well as the Advisory Board of Rutgers University’s Center for Latino Arts and Culture. Villarreal is a member of the Neo-Latinos Artists and CAFE Artists Groups. Villarreal’s book, "Hemingway’s Cuban Son", based on his father René’s memoirs of his friendship with the famous American author, will be published by The Kent State University Press in January 2009. www.raulvillarreal.com
Sergio Rivero
Sergio Rivero’s paintings of his childhood Cuba and his black-and-white Rumba cycle have been shown at galleries and exhibitions throughout New York’s metropolitan area. Read Additional Bio
MINI-GALA SEPT. 27, 2008
Laura Bundesen
Hailing originally from California, Laura Bundesen has for many years explored combining embroidery and beading on painted canvases, such as her ArtsEcho Galleria work created while she lived in Pakistan. Previously, Bundesen was Executive Director of the Old Church Cultural Center’s Gallery in Demarest, NJ. She is currently Assistant Director of Sponsored Research for New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
Amado Mora
A native of Guayaquil, Ecuador, Amado Mora is known as the “Pachuco” of subrealism. After receiving his BBAA at Guayaquil’s Art School, Mora studied other forms of art, ranging from ceramics to metal and marble restoration. A Union City resident, he has exhibited his paintings, drawings, and sculpture in both group and solo shows in Ecuador, the Caribbean, Europe, and in the US. Locally, Amado Mora’s works have been shown at NYC’s International Book Fair, and at the and the Federación Mercantil España, the Hoboken, Edgewater, and Union City Art Festivals, St. John’s Art Fest, and Union City’s City Hall Art Gallery (all in NJ). fbmora@msn.com
Michele Papavasiliou
A student of Hanga – Japanese woodblock printing – Michele Papavasiliou applies her own individual style to this ancient technique. Best known from 18th and 19th century Ukyio-e prints, Hanga utilizes water-based inks, handmade Japanese paper, and a handheld printing tool called a “baren” that transfers images from wood to paper.
In her contemporary hanga, Papavasiliou incorporates photo/silkscreen on prints, or superimposes letters or human images over abstract forms. Her work was most recently shown at the Washington International Print Fair (Arlington, VA) in April 2008. A resident of Teaneck, NJ, the artist received a BA in Visual Art from Barnard College, and a Master’s Degree in Studio Art from New York University. mpapava@mac.com
Teddy Schapiro
A BFA graduate of California Institute of the Arts (with post-graduate studies at the Art Institute of Chicago), Teddy Schapiro has exhibited in group and solo shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Louisville (KY), and New York City.
His drawings have been seen at NYC’s Pace Gallery, Soho Center for the Visual Arts, Pleiades Gallery, White Columns, Bess Cutler Gallery, 101 Spring Street Gallery, Petersburg Gallery, and Artists Space, and received critical acclaim in The New York Times, The Gallery, and The New Yorker. Born across the river in NYC, Teddy Schapiro now calls Union City home.
Victor Cuya was born in Lima, Peru, where he studied drawing, painting, and graphic arts at his country’s leading fine arts school, the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes. During his studies, Cuya also worked in Lima’s ancient churches by restoring murals and canvas paintings of religious saints and biblical passages, thereby immersing himself in styles and techniques of the old masters.
In his brushstrokes, Cuya tries to portray the people of the Andes in their historical, social, and cultural context. Cuya’s evocative paintings – portraits, landscapes, realistic scenes, and abstract works – have been exhibited in both group and one-man shows internationally in Lima, Peru and in New York City (United Nations; Bronx Hispanic and Latin American Biennial Art Shows). In New Jersey, Cuya has shown in Newark (Gallery 744, NJPAC, UMDNJ, NCC Arts, Essex County College) and Union City (Pintores Hispano-Americanos Exhibitions, Gallery at City Hall), as well as at the Paterson Museum and Perth Amboy Gallery Center for the Arts. Newark’s Art Council recently named Cuya an Artist of the Month for 2008. A resident of Patterson, NJ, Victor Cuya now combines images from this historic city with those of his native Peru to build an artistic bridge between the two cultures. www.victor-cuya.fineartamerica.com www.victor-cuya.artelista.com
El Camuzo
Carlos Francisco Muñoz Guarnizo ("El Camuzo") was born in Macará, in the province of Loja, Ecuador in 1969, into a family of musicians, writers, and singer/songwriters. As a painter and sculptor, he has exhibited in Peru, Spain and the Basque Country, Mexico, and cultural centers in Ecuador. Today residing in Ecuador, El Camuzo has gained an international reputation as a social critic, painter, sculptor, muralist, writer, and singer/songwriter.
As Peruvian writer Juan Félix Cortés describes the artist's works: “El Camuzo captures on canvas forceful inner emotions, revealing to us the anguish and desperation of contemporary humanity. In his works, one encounters an artist’s innate rebellion that distorts a pictorial image, but that also conserves the inner screams of a human victimized by a system that excludes him. . . . Even the hands and feet in his paintings depict in deeply dramatic style the feelings of contemporary man – denouncing war, torture, persecution, hunger and malnutrition, indifference and egotism. . . . His works always provoke a strong emotional response.” camu_zo@yahoo.com
Janet Diaz
Janet Diaz was born in Huanaco, Peru, and studied ceramic sculpture and painting at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes, and interior design at the Orval Art and Design Institute, both in Lima, Peru. After exhibiting her paintings at Peruvian galleries, including el Museo de la Nación, Diaz entered her first international show, Young Art Miami/Washington in 1993.
Since moving to the United States, she has participated in numerous NYC group shows, including at the Colombian Consulate, in SoHo (113 Gallery’s First Annual Celebration of World Culture/Latinoamerican Art), at Art Expo Fair (Jacob Javits Center), and in Tribeca (“Visions of Summer” exhibit). Besides her solo shows at San Antonio, TX’s Anart Gallery and Hoboken, NJ’s Monroe Gallery, Diaz has exhibited in New Jersey at the Hispanic Heritage Month Headquarters (Newark) and for the past three years in “100 Artists of Hoboken”. A resident of West New York, NJ, Diaz was a finalist in Hispanic American Artists’ 2nd Religious Art Exhibit (Wallace Hall, NYC), and received awards from Lima, Peru’s Borkas Gallery and Lions Club for her work.
jsagitario3@yahoo.com
Amado Mora
Amado Mora is a native of Guayaquil, Ecuador and is known as the “Pachuco” of subrealism. After receiving his BBAA at Guayaquil’s Art School, Mora studied other forms of art, ranging from ceramics to metal and marble restoration. A Union City resident, Mora has exhibited his paintings, drawings, and sculpture in both group and solo shows in Ecuador, the Caribbean, Europe, and in the US. Locally, Amado Mora’s works have been shown at NYC’s International Book Fair, and the Federación Mercantil España, at Hoboken, Edgewater, and Union City Art Festivals, at Union City’s St. John’s Art Fest, and City Hall Art Gallery (which Mora helps curate). amadomora56@hotmail.com
