The Puerto Rico Community Foundation administers the Lexus Fund scholarship program.
San Juan, Puerto Rico – Art and environmental causes are not disconnected in the works that the emerging artists who won the 2018 Lexus Artist Grant will be creating over the coming months. Artists Edwardo Aguilera Enchautegui (Coco Valencia), Vanessa Rivera Martínez, and Abdiel D. Segarra Ríos will each receive a grant of $9,000 to develop and create their respective artistic projects, which incorporate the use of recycled or reusable materials.
Since the program's founding in 2003, Lexus has awarded over half a million dollars to more than 40 emerging artists, enabling them to create highly relevant works and advance their careers in the visual arts. The program's call for submissions has become an anticipated event, attracting hundreds of young artists from various disciplines.
“We are supporting a new generation of young visual artists with immense talent and creative careers that enrich our culture. At Lexus with the Arts, we have the responsibility to support new talents in their professional growth to pave their way and give exposure to their work. The works created by these artists are presented in a grand exhibition, which represents a high-profile launch of their artistic creations,” said Maribel Bengoa, marketing manager for Lexus in Puerto Rico.
Winners have a specified period to complete the proposals they submitted. Upon completion of this work production period, each artist has the opportunity to exhibit their proposal at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico for approximately two and a half months. The scholarship program seeks to raise awareness about the delicate state of the environment, which is why it incorporates recycled, recyclable, and/or reused materials into the artworks. The winning proposals include diverse media, materials, and forms, ranging from large-scale installations, photography, and sculpture, to found objects and mixed media.
“At the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, we feel a great commitment to the development of the arts in our country, which is why it is of utmost importance to be a platform for showcasing the new generation of local creators. The group of award-winning artists presents proposals that are the product of deep reflections on their surroundings. As chroniclers of our times, these artists will develop works that speak of their concerns about the conservation of our environment. This grant gives them the opportunity to create and thus demonstrate, once again, the wealth of talent of our artists and the importance and relevance of their voices,” added Marta Mabel Pérez, executive director of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico.
The proposal of Vanessa Rivera Martinez, titled “Aquifer III” The artist seeks to create an installation based on breaking down and reassembling material, giving it new life through the technique of mosaic. It is a large-format installation, representing an organic water transportation system. The concept aims to raise awareness about the elements of beauty and perception, while simultaneously fostering consciousness about the importance of natural resources. Edwardo Aguilera Enchautegui (Coco Valencia) will create the work “Drill” which will consist of a sculptural installation of one hundred pieces constructed from recycled corrugated cardboard. The piece, far from exhibiting reality, is a pretense of reality. It displays the violence of indifference and discrimination. It exposes the hostile and immoral treatment of a poisoned language and constructs vitiated words that assault the viewer. Abdiel Segarra Ríowill be presented, “things about that unbreakable and unstoppable consumption pattern”, a work created in three large-format pieces, composed of collections of easily disposable materials. It seeks to bring consumer habits and the transactions upon which our daily routine is built to the forefront. The pieces will be constructed using the collage technique with disposable materials such as labels, wrappers, printed packaging boxes, among others, which will be accentuated with acrylic paint.