Construct: Our Orlando

Published in conjunction with the exhibition CONSTRUCT: OUR ORL ANDO Organized by the Mennello Museum of American Ar t and curated by Katherine Page, Curator of Ar t and Education October 2, 2020 – Januar y 10, 2021

Edited by Shannon Fitzgerald, Executive Director Essay by Katherine Page, Curator of Ar t and Education, Mennello Museum of American Ar t Designed by Jeremy Kemp Copyright © 2020 Mennello Museum of American Ar t All Don Rimx ar twork © Edwin Sepulveda aka Don Rimx Copyright © 2020 Mennello Museum of American Ar t All Lemon Press ar twork © Lemon Press, Anna Cruz and Adam Lavigne

Mennello Museum of American Ar t 900 E. Princeton Street Orlando, Florida 32803 www.mennellomuseum.org

F R I E N D S

O F

Funding for this exhibition is provided by the City of Orlando, the Friends of Mennello Museum of American Ar t, Orange County Government through the Ar ts & Cultural Af fairs Program, United Ar ts of Central Florida, and Division of Cultural Af fairs, Florida Depar tment of State.

This project was also made possible by a grant from Duke Energy through United Ar ts of Central Florida and Ar t Bridges Foundation.

Page 2: Don Rimx, Diloggun, 2019, acr ylic on canvas. 24 x 26 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Page 3 : Lemon Press, Alphabet 2, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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9 INTRODUCTION 10 DON RIMX KATHERINE PAGE, CURATOR

14 LEMON PRESS KATHERINE PAGE, CURATOR

19 PL ATES DON RIMX

32 PL ATES LEMON PRESS

44 EXHIBITION CHECKLIST 45 BOARD OF DIRECTORS & MUSEUM STAFF

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CONSTRUCT: OUR ORL ANDO presents ar tists Don Rimx (b. San Juan, Puer to Rico, 1981) and the collective Lemon Press (Anna Cruz [b. Manila, Philippines, 1992] and Adam Lavigne [b. Hillsboro, Missouri, 1988]). Here, they consider a multitude of themes around the complexity of the title of the exhibition – that is their investigations of the socio-cultural constructs shaping identity and framing language.

Through building out novel worlds that invoke a sense of both other worldliness and home while mapping relationships to one another throughout time and location, the ar tists included in this exhibition investigate and ask us to consider what constructs we adhere to in our daily lives.

In their individual practices, Don Rimx explores cultural hybridity through the lens of anatomy, place, por traiture, and media while Lemon Press investigate power through the visual and representational abstraction inherent to communication.

The works in this exhibition highlight, confuse, and at times even unify traditional oppositions all while questioning the concepts of high and low in ar t – both ar tists use classic and historic elements of drawing, mural making, print, and illustration that converge to form vibrant contemporar y por traits and invented narratives.

DON RIMX Photograph cour tesy of Cody Rasmussen.

Classically trained in painting and drawing at the Escuela de Ar tes Plasticas, Puer to Rico, ar tist Don Rimx’s canvases and murals reflect and activate the bright light and exquisite colors of his own, and others, extensively multi-cultural Caribbean heritage. Rimx works to employ a vast spectrum of visuals to represent Puer to Rican heritage and spirituality, highlighting not just the beauty of his culture but the sync hronicities and points of connection throughout many cultures.

Rimx creates a visual vocabular y that repeats throughout his work of buildings, edifices, and facades, as metaphors for human anatomy. The body built by the ar tist is constructed in a world similar to our own– it is made of molecular foundational pairs of DNA in beaded nec klaces, wooden frames of skeletal material, and textural, built up, in bric klike musculature, all of whic h come together to form the structure of a person where doors and windows of fer open spaces inviting the viewer to look beyond what is outside.

Having spent his formative years in Puer to Rico, Rimx was inspired by the traditions of the social realist, radical ar tists and printmakers of the 1950s including Rafael Tufiño, Antonio Matrelle, and, later, Jose Alicea. Invoking this strong histor y, Rimx uses thic k and bold edges of bric k and wood patterning to build out the textures found in hair and skin, an extension of the aesthetic influence of the graphic ar ts from linocut and woodbloc k prints on paper - even Roy Lic htenstein’s pop ar t brush strokes are evoked in the graphic grain of the wood. Rimx’s practice, on canvas and as a muralist reflects his appreciation for graphics in Puer to Rico and throughout Latin America.

The unique cross-cultural bac kground of many Puer to Ricans is comprised of an expansive histor y and cultural hybridization of Indigenous, African, European, and some Asian heritages, forced together during European colonization of the island. The illustrative ar tists of 1950s Puer to Rico were creating work specifically reacting to the long-term racially divisive social and political ramifications for Puer to Rico as a United States Territor y, having been exploited for labor and land in sugarcane and tobacco production. Ar tists Lorenzo Homar, Carlos Raquel Rivera, and Tufiño documented the social lives and traditions of the working classes in Puer to Rico as opposed to elite members of society or the nostalgic and bucolic landscapes or genre paintings then favored.

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There is continuity in subject matter in por traiture as Rimx por trays local ar tists, musicians, and luminaries, beloved tradespeople, or invented figures highlighting their diverse heritages, to elicit conversations on the similarities between and among race, ethnicity, or religion throughout the Puer to Rican diaspora in the United States and even globally. Like Tufiño and the Ashcan Sc hool of painters before him, Rimx paints por traits of the ever yday person in an American urban context, elevated to an elite status honored in paintings or murals as vibrant as Kehinde Wiley’s contemporar y histor y paintings of his proposed blac k royalty.

In Rimx’s Diloggun, 2019 the viewer is treated to a pac ked introduction into the ar tists pictorial language. He utilizes bric ks that are hard and sof t at once, swirling like highlighted tendrils of hair around the female figure. The bric ks call into question the actuality, the duality of the objects he depicts creating a metaphor around the hard-sof t structure of the human body and spirit. What is flexible is also solid in these visions by the ar tist, what is smooth can also be rough, c hanging depending on scales of micro and macro. Moreover, the ease of a beautiful image has its way of creating a comfor table space to begin a dialogue on the colonial and cultural histor y of Puer to Rican Heritage, whic h might feel dif ficult, but is essential for the ar tist in depicting Puer to Rican heritage.

There are a number of hybrid, syncretic belief systems born of both the physical and spiritual sur vival of indigenous, enslaved, and colonizing populations throughout Latin America. The sur vival of traditional belief systems, like those from West African Yoruba within the guise of Catholicism, generated a new spectrum of spiritual practices throughout the Caribbean and Latin America some of whic h include Santeria, Regla de Oc ha, and Vodu.

Eleguá (sometimes called Eshu or Papa Legba), an Orisha (or divine spirit, sometimes called Oricha, Saints, or Loa) is revered as the keeper of the roads and may be symbolized and invoked by a practitioner wearing eleke beads of alternating red and blac k patterns, as seen along the nec k of Abre Camino, 2020. Eleguá holds the spiritual keys to allow one to enter roads both in physical reality and time constructed in the past, present, and future – Eleguá must be asked before a ceremony of any kind can move for ward, the divine entity between the real world and sacred space. That the ar tist c hooses to evoke Eleguá in the elements of beads in many of his works, connotes a ritual-like aspect to both creating and viewing the 12

painting, allowing for a deeply connecting conversation among the Orisha, painter, and viewer.

The patterning of beads in red and blac k and green and yellow are interspersed throughout Diloggun with cowrie shell gif ts, like an abundance of currency or of ferings, float over and through the woman, permeating the figure to her core. Like foundational strands of DNA , the beads akin to pairings of adenine (A) and cytosine (C) or guanine (G) and thymine (T), build their own unique genetic code, whic h the ar tist uses to link all life on this planet not only body, but deeply in psyc hological spirit. The other colors embody the ideals of additional deities with whic h to connect and speak spiritual messages and understandings through painting.

Rimx fur ther links formal qualities of the imager y used in syncretic religions through his use of daring, neon colors that enliven his paintings like a sunlit stained-glass window. Windows appear frequently in Rimx’s por traits as por tals to the hear t and soul of the person being depicted. In Un Poco Mas Allå, 2019 the imagined sitter is revealed to be at once made of and connected to the universe in a wonder ful duality of micro and macro scales presenting in the same moment.

There is an immediacy, a temporal quality, and power ful movement, toward connection, in Rimx’s works where the ephemerality of largescale urban murals is captured onto his canvases. The cascading tendrils of neon bric ks and inner scaf folding truly energize Rimx’s work , not merely moving the viewer ’s eye through the piece but also embracing them in a new world where duality reigns.

Harnessing the visibility and agency of large-scale street work , Rimx aims to connect and empower the public audience, like many street ar tists, to view, enjoy, and to see themselves, connecting communities in the diaspora through their shared histories and experiences. One sees his ar t as an understanding, bridge building between communities through por traiture and the literal construction of bodies that are supernaturally imbued with the universe at all times.

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LEMON PRESS Photograph cour tesy of the ar tists.

Capturing the viewers imagination by simply connecting image to narrative, Lemon Press is a small publishing and design studio comprised of Anna Cruz and Adam Lavigne, both graduates of the University of Central Florida’s Studio Ar t Bac helor of Fine Ar ts program with focuses in painting and drawing, respectively. Lemon Press investigates the duality and power embedded in language by creating their own symbolic alphabet of representational abstractions and incorporating those signs into paintings about home and the natural world. Combining their interests in book making, graphic novels, ancient societies, and modern abstract ar t, Lemon Press creates an expressive world positioned within the movement of celestial bodies as a measurement and mapping of our shared time in the year 2020.

Engaged with notions of construct, Lemon Press painted and created new site-specific work for the installation of this exhibition. The viewer is asked to move through the galler y investigating eac h canvas and the designed environment to carefully decode secret messages in an exploration of how ar t, design, and language can be used to intentionally frame how reality is perceived. Lemon Press provides the viewer with a compass to begin their journey, tracing a mysterious narrative through visual analysis and finally text.

Lemon Press’ Compass, 2020 is a clever nod to a deep histor y of reflection on one’s environment and ser ves as the ideal star ting point to viewing and understanding how the ar tists intend to guide us through their visual account of the year.

The compass as a physical tool is comprised of a magnetized needle, whic h points to magnetic nor th aiding its user in determining their course of direction on the ear th’s sur face at all times. Af ter studied obser vation of the naturally magnetized lodestone the compass was invented over 2,000 years in Han dynasty China. Prior to its invention, human cultures around the planet, had been relying upon generations of intimate knowledge gained from closely obser ving temporal c hanges in their surrounding environment in order to determine their bearings.

Understanding their location through meteorology and astronomy through details like the direction of winds, migration of birds, and the relational positioning of stars in the night sky. The composition of Compass is laid out like an explorer ’s map that depicts the ar tists’ known world, whic h is arranged around their own household sphere complete with c herished, “domesticated” flora and fauna under a bright blue sky. It is “the influence with whic h you are actuated all through,” that reminds the viewer that what they are about to 15

experience is based on, or constructed, through the lens with whic h the ar tists themselves are personally living and experiencing in their world and then translating those obser vations or researc h into painting.

The Model, 2020, an installation of circular canvases representing the sun and moon in a penumbral eclipse, are lassoed together by a green and sparkling rope signifying another framing element of the exhibition – time. An imper fect lunar eclipse, there were four penumbral eclipses in 2020 (Jan 10, June 5, July 4, Nov 29). The illuminated moon was visible across the nighttime sky on ear th joining people in a shared experience across constructs of boundaries like political borders and time zones through a natural phenomenon. Yet, eac h understanding of the event would have to be individualized based on that person’s personal compass with whic h they view the world and their physical location therein.

A step far ther, Solstice, 2020 is Lemon Press’ own interpretation of the June 20, 2020 Summer Solstice, marking its passage. Solstice is an example of the ar tists interest in abstraction, formed through intermingling fields of warm toned colors that seem to oscillate and move like fields of energy – a modern scientific understanding of electron clouds that has c hanged collective understanding of solid matter – matter is now known to be fundamentally more of a grid of energy. On the sur face of the color field landscape, the ar tists add a patterned design of dots and dashes reminiscent of a Rorsc hac h test, cloud gazing, celebrator y confetti, and the symmetrical dot paintings of Larr y Poons, an influence for Lavigne. Design elements from the Rorsc hac h-esque dots to a new grapheme alphabet aid in building out Lemon Press’ constructed world with the intention of giving mysterious patterns of creation to be solved.

Lemon Press’ interest in the physical drawing of letters or symbols as language is exemplified in Alphabet 1 & 2, 2020. A Rosetta Stone of sor ts, these outlined forms show a translation of the American English language reinvented as pictorial symbols inspired by hieroglyphic scripts. Cruz has also been inspired by the personal language of color and ar tist designed symbolic renderings harnessed by turn-of-the-last centur y abstract ar tist, Hilma af Klint. Here, the letter “A” is encoded by the ar tist as an egg, connoting the beginning of the alphabet while the number zero, a broken egg marks the end. Some symbols like the door and jug correlate to the first letter of their English word, “D” and “J”. Others like an apple, can represent a concept like nutrition for 16

the letter “N.” To understand the numbers, you begin to recognize number of loops, edges, or fingers to count. Through recognizing the patterns words create, one is able to begin decoding the messages hidden in the paintings.

Lemon Press personifies the sun and moon in Por trait 1 & 2, a diptyc h featuring the sun and the and moon as arc hetypal figures. The sun, a mature male c haracter appears in a blue clouded sky holding an upright flower. The moon is his counter, a female personage with a glowing halo and palms facing the viewer. She is presented within a pink and gold bright nights sky as if shining in an eclipse. Both are depicted in poses reminiscent of religious icons yet immersed in a scientific understanding of nuclear reactions and cycles – understood once their surrounding text is translated. Similar to Illusionism in early Christian ar t, it appears as though Lemon Press’ Sun and Moon are presented as a metaphor on divinity in nature, celestial bodies as symbols of arc hetypes.

The ar tists have noted that the dual por traits are also a reference to syzygy, a term used in astronomy to describe the relationship between the sun and moon as a union of opposites during full moons, new moons, or eclipses on ear th. As the personified star and satellite, these por traits come together in the glow of a lunar eclipse. On another level, combining Plato’s philosophies and Carl Jung’s psyc hoanalyses, syzygy can be looked at as a way to explore the human need to blend concepts of Eros and Logos, love and knowledge, and feminine and masculine to merge together in order to best understand oneself connecting to a greater happiness and wholeness through embracing duality.

The custom shaped canvases spread evenly across the galler y wall are titled by dates only suggesting a visual record of the time in whic h they were created. It is here that the symbolic alphabet and lunar calendar come together as a framework of iconography por traying full moon dates, titles, and lore found in the Farmer ’s Almanac. Installed below eac h painting is a scalloped patc h of faux grass, whic h ser ves as a reminder that the images created in this world and its written language is a dreamlike invention of the ar tists.

Lemon Press’ abstracted and graphic world lends well to comic and animation formats, whic h the duo of ten incorporates into ‘zines bringing their ar t to a wider audience. They provide a unique edition

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of a mini zine as well in the process of decoding language in the galler y. The intent of the ar tists throughout this body of work is one of demonstration and empowerment in creating beautiful and enigmatic worlds around one’s own visions in reality, translated to canvas or even to a simple piece of paper. The narrative images created here enliven scientific concepts and philosophical ideas using a language distilled into straightfor ward icons that take the viewer on a journey of the year 2020 from the perspectives and obser vations of Anna Cruz and Adam Lavigne.

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DON RIMX

Don Rimx, Abre Camino, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 52 x 31 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, Un Poco Mas AllĂĽ, 2019, acr ylic on canvas, 24 x 20 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, AIRE, 2020, acr ylic on laser cut wood, 94 x 90 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, Autorretrato, 2020, acr ylic on laser cut wood, 90 x 76 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, Luz por la Ventana, 2019, acr ylic on canvas, 32 x 24 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, Diloggun, 2019, acr ylic on canvas, 24 x 26 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, Cacique, 2020, acr ylic on laser cut wood, 46 x 26 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, Volando Bajito, 2020, acr ylic on laser cut wood, 45 x 30 inc hes Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, MooMoo, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 52 x 44 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, BUZUKA, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 84 x 60 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, Dentro del Silencio, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 52 x 62 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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Don Rimx, Del Balcon pa Dentro, 2020, acr ylic on canvas 52 x 31 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

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LEMON PRESS

Lemon Press, Compass, 2020, mixed media on canvas, 60 x 48 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, Model, 2020, mixed media on canvas, Moon: 36 1/2 x 36 1/2 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, Solstice, 2020, mixed media on canvas, 54 x 42 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, June 5, 2020, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 26 x 31 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, July 5, 2020, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 25 1/2 x 30 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, August 3, 2020, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 34 x 34 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, September 2, 2020, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 11 1/4 x 20 3/4 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, Alphabet 1, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, Alphabet 2, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, 100 Years, 2020, mixed media on canvas, 13 1/2 x 12 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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Lemon Press, Por trait 1 & 2, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 20 1/2 x 27 inc hes eac h. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

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DON RIMX Abre Camino, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 52 x 31 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

AIRE, 2020, acr ylic on laser cut wood, 94 x 90 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Autorretrato, 2020, acr ylic on laser cut wood, 90 x 76 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

BUZUKA, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 84 x 60 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Cacique, 2020, acr ylic on laser cut wood, 46 x 26 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Del Balcon pa Dentro, 2020, acr ylic on canvas 52 x 31 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Dentro del Silencio, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 52 x 62 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Diloggun, 2019, acr ylic on canvas, 24 x 26 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Luz por la Ventana, 2019, acr ylic on canvas, 32 x 24 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

MooMoo, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 52 x 44 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Un Poco Mas AllĂĽ, 2019, acr ylic on canvas, 24 x 20 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Volando Bajito, 2020, acr ylic on laser cut wood, 45 x 30 inc hes Cour tesy of the ar tist.

LEMON PRESS 100 Years, 2020, mixed media on canvas, 13 1/2 x 12 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

Alphabet 1, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

Alphabet 2, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

August 3, 2020, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 34 x 34 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

Compass, 2020, mixed media on canvas, 60 x 48 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

July 5, 2020, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 25 1/2 x 30 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

June 5, 2020, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 26 x 31 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

Model, 2020, mixed media on canvas, Moon: 36 1/2 x 36 1/2 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

Por trait 1 & 2, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 20 1/2 x 27 inc hes eac h. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

September 2, 2020, 2020, acr ylic on canvas, 11 1/4 x 20 3/4 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tist.

Solstice, 2020, mixed media on canvas, 54 x 42 inc hes. Cour tesy of the ar tists.

CITY OF ORLANDO Mayor District District District District District District

Buddy Dyer 1 Commissioner: 2 Commissioner: 3 Commissioner: 4 Commissioner: 5 Commissioner: 6 Commissioner:

Jim Gray Tony Ortiz Robert F. Stuart Patty Sheehan Regina I. Hill Bakari Burns

ORLANDO VENUES

Allen Johnson, Chief Venues Officer

FRIENDS OF THE MENNELLO MUSEUM Michael A. Mennello, Founder & President Walter Ketcham, Vice President James Southall, Treasurer John Upperco, Secretary Laura Cosgrove, Advancement Chair Sam Azar David Cross Jeff Gitto Sarah Grafton Aimee Collins Hitchner

Mary C. Kenny Sharon Line Clary Howard Marks Dr. Manuel Perez Kimberly Sterling

Ross Silverbach Jan Staniszkis Michael Stewart

MENNELLO MUSEUM CITY-APPOINTED BOARD OF TRUSTEES Gretchen Hahn, Chair Aaron Clevenger Flynn Dobbs, Vice Chair Bridget Fields David Forrest Ashaki Holmes-Kidd Greg Mason Deepa Fernandes Prabhu Meredith Smith

MUSEUM STAFF

Shannon Fitzgerald, Executive Director Jeremy Kemp, Marketing & Design Emily McVeigh, Registrar Katherine E. Page, Curator of Art & Education Anne Peoples, Visitor Services Ayana Perez, Visitor Services Kim Robinson, Senior Administrative Assistant Jessi VanPelt, Development Assistant

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