What Can Brown Do for You? @ Esperanza Leon's Solar Gallery in East Hampton

What Can Brown Do for You?

That's the name of the show at Solar, a lively exhibition venue in East Hampton directed by Esperanza Leon.

No, it's not about the company with the ubiquitous brown delivery trucks. Instead, it's an examination of the underside of the American economy: the exploitation of immigrant workers.

The show continues a theme that included Solar's 2004 show “Spanglish”.

Incongruity marks many of the works in Solar Gallery's present show; simply put, the effects are delicious and daunting. And risk-taking. It's not that these examples are necessarily surreal, yet in a way they cannot deny their surreal roots. More to the point, the pieces make social and political statements, some more subtle than others, that reflect the sensibilities of the current times. And that give dignity to the working class. Marion Wolberg Weiss, Arts Commentator, Dan's Hamptons - 9.19.08

Esperanza Leon, an immigrant from Venezuela, founded Solar in 2001 to showcase little known Latin American and U.S. Latino artists, as well as nonLatino artists investigating Latino themes.

For example, Brown includes:

Sheila Breck's Shadow Economy is a collection of the portraits of day laborers at the 7-Eleven in Farmingville.

Dulce Pinzon’s photographs document Mexican immigrant workers in New York City who withstand “extreme conditions of labor” in order to help their families to survive and prosper.

Aurelio Torres' work portrays the figure of the gardener or landscaper.

Also included are works by Santiago Garza, Christa Maiwald, Esperanza Mayobre and Michael Pribich.

The show can be seen through November 3, 2008.

Links:
"What Brown Can Do For You?" At Solar Gallery
Leon Delivers At Solar Gallery
Solar Gallery