The Museum of the Old Colony is an ongoing, site-specific, conceptual art installation by visual artist Pablo Delano that studies how everyday objects, imagery and film have shaped misperceptions of Puerto Rico after the Spanish-American War of 1898, when it was seized by the United States military from Spain as a “possession.”
The exhibition will open at James Madison University’s Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art on Feb. 1, 5-7 p.m., with remarks by guest curator Laura Katzman and an artist’s talk by Delano.
With dry wit and sardonic humor, the exhibition confronts the stereotypes of Puerto Rico spread by mainstream media over the past 124 years; the relationship between U.S. imperial power and the island-nation; and the lasting and devastating legacies of colonial rule.
The gallery will host a film screening and panel discussion on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 5:30-8 p.m. in the Duke Gallery Courtyard. Cecilia Aldarondo’s award-winning documentary Landfall is about the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Panelists will include: Taína Caragol (Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery); Nefin Dinc (SMAD/JMU); Ángel Garcia (Geology/JMU); Amanda Guzmán (Trinity College); and Marianne Ramírez Aponte (Museum of Contemporary Art, Puerto Rico).
Delano was born in Puerto Rico and holds a B.F.A. from Tyler School of Art/Temple University and an M.F.A. from Yale University, both in painting. He has taught at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. since 1996, producing a book of black and white photographs, In Trinidad, documenting the nation’s post-colonial nation building, while collecting the archival images and artifacts that would ultimately grow into The Museum of the Old Colony. In 2019, Delano was appointed Charles A. Dana Professor of Fine Arts. http://www.pablodelano.com/
Katzman is a JMU art history professor who specializes in documentary photography on the U.S. continent and in Puerto Rico during the New Deal and post-World War II eras. She is the editor and an essayist for this installation’s catalogue, which will include essays by noted scholars, including Gallery Director Dr. Beth Hinderliter, a foreword by Marianne Ramírez Aponte (Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico), and an extensive interview with the artist. https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5885
The Museum of the Old Colony lives in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico | Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico and has traveled around the world. http://museumoftheoldcolony.org/
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