Sophie Rivera: Beyond The Lens - A Panel Discussion

En Foco, Pregones, and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater present Sophie Rivera: Beyond the Lens, a panel discussion highlighting the person, her life, and legacy of  Puerto Rican street photographer Sophie Rivera. The discussion is an initiative of the Nueva Luz Study Center (NLSC) and is part of En Foco’s efforts to preserve the culture and legacy of diasporic lens-based artists. 

The panel was organized by Bill Aguado, En Foco’s President, and will feature Marisol Díaz-Gordon, Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, and Nina Kuo. The discussion is attached to the current exhibition, Boricua lens: Sophie Rivera Portraits on view at Pregones/PRTT until April 4, 2024, located at 575 Walton Ave, Bronx, NY 10451, and virtually at enfoco.org. 

Sophie Rivera had been involved with En Foco since before the launch of the Nueva Luz photographic journal in 1985. The upcoming panel discussion, and current exhibition honor this connection by introducing Sophie Rivera to current audiences, and preserving her contributions to the canon of American Photography, and activism. With the recent launching of the Nueva Luz Study Center, access to Sophie Rivera’s archives inspired En Foco to expand the current information available for the artist. Giving a fuller picture of Sophie’s professional and creative life through this expansion of her entry in our archive. En Foco would like to thank the Estate and family of Sophie Rivera, for their support and for providing access to Rivera’s archives and materials. 

ABOUT THE PANELISTS:

Rocio Aranda-Alvarado is part of the Creativity and Free Expression team. She joined Ford in 2018 after serving as curator at El Museo del Barrio for nearly a decade. In that role, she presented visual arts and programming that reflected the history and culture of El Barrio as well as the greater Latinx and Latin American diaspora. Prior to that, from 2000 to 2009, she was the curator at the Jersey City Museum. Concurrent to her work in museums, Rocío taught as an adjunct professor; consulted and curated independently on Latinx and Latin American art and culture; and published and advised, in both a scholarly and curatorial capacity, at the Smithsonian Institution. She earned her PhD in art history from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center.

Marisol Díaz-Gordon was the former Program Director of En Foco from 1998 to 2011. She is currently working on her MFA in Digital Media at Lehman College, CUNY. She received a BA focusing on photography from City College, CUNY (2002), and an AAS in Advertising Arts/Computer Graphics from Bronx Community College, CUNY (1993). Her work has been exhibited in galleries and alternative spaces throughout New York, including by En Foco (2000 and 2011), George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York (2008), and Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, New York (2006). In 2008, she was nominated by En Foco for a commission with the George Eastman Museum to document landscapes in Puerto Rico. That work traveled to such venues as the Andy Warhol Museum, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2009), and is currently held in the permanent collection of the George Eastman Museum. From 2016 to 2018, ARTViews Gallery at Montefiore Medical Center collected, commissioned, and exhibited her work. She is also a participant in the Bronx Artist Documentary Project (2014). 

Nina Kuo photographs multi-global layered futuristic worlds that focus on multicultural issues that join in a larger community. After serving as a CETA photo artist, teacher, and public artist – she showed at En Foco, Bronx in 1990, finding new artistic outlets and exchanges. Early on she reviewed En Foco’s lecture series with Dawoud Bey and others sharing the challenges of POC groups with involvement in Basement Wksp., PESTS, and AAPI collectives. She has exhibited Art in collaboration with multi-media venues. Collections: MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Lib. of Congress, Biblioteque Nationale. Notably, Kuo has exhibited photos with curators: Sophie Rivera, Lucy Lippard, Lydia Yee, Thelma Golden, H. Pindell, Hatch- Billops Collection, etc.

ABOUT EN FOCO:

En Foco, Inc. is a non-profit that supports U.S.-based photographers of African, Asian, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander heritage. Founded in 1974, En Foco makes their work visible to the art world, yet remains accessible to under-served communities. Through exhibitions, workshops, events, and publications, it provides professional recognition, honoraria, and assistance to photographers as they grow into different stages of their careers. The Nueva Luz Study Center (NLSC) makes our history accessible through the digital archives of all issues of the photographic journal since 1985.  Exhibitions, programs, and commissions are underway that focus on artists and issues that have been introduced in Nueva Luz For more information about En Foco, please visit www.enfoco.org. 

ABOUT PREGONES/PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATER:

Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (aka Pregones/PRTT) is a multigenerational performing ensemble, multidisciplinary arts presenter, and owner/steward of bilingual arts facilities in The Bronx and Manhattan. Our mission is to champion a Puerto Rican/Latinx cultural legacy of universal value through the creation and performance of original plays and musicals, exchange and partnership with other artists of merit, and engagement of diverse audiences. For more information about Pregones/PRTT, please visit pregonesprtt.org.

Host or Publisher En Foco