Graduates of The Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design have won the three top prizes in the XXIV Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes. The winners of the RD$500,000 prizes are Hulda Guzmán, Carlos de León, and Raquel Paiewonsky. The León Jimenes is one of the most prestigious art competitions in the Dominican Republic. Merely to be accepted into the meticulously juried show is an accolade, and to win a top prize is cause for great celebration.
The focus of the Leon Jimenes competition has traditionally been on cutting-edge contemporary art, but always with a strong emphasis on skill. Over the years, many graduates of The Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design have taken top honors in the Biennial, and also in the Biennial of Santo Domingo’s Museum of Modern Art. With its concern for academic, figurative skills in drawing, painting, two- and three-dimensional design, as well as performance or conceptual art, The School of Design—an affiliate of New York’s Parsons The New School for Design since 1983—is naturally a great source of applicants for both contests.
The works of each of the three top León Jimenes winners, executed in diverse contemporary styles, demonstrate a high level of expression and deep social commitment, in some cases reflecting an intense personal, emotional experience that comments on the reality of life in the Dominican Republic.
Carlos de Leon’s winning work (above), “Te amo” (I Love You), deals with tender thoughts of, and nostalgia for, the overpowering, nurturing love of his grandmother, who raised him. His photographic images are humorous but also tug at the heartstrings, “Peinao y empolvao; de cuando mamá me llevaba a la San Martín” (pictured right) symbolizes his grandmother’s love by the talcum power that she lavished on him as a schoolboy.
A 2011 Graphic Design graduate of the two-year program at Altos de Chavón, Carlos won Parsons’ Ruth Vanterpool Scholarship, a full scholarship that has enabled him to study at Parsons. An extraordinarily bright and talented young man, he is now a senior and currently has his first one-person exhibit at Parsons’ Student Gallery.
Hulda Guzmán, whose winning work is Fiesta en el Batey (Party in the Sugar Mill Town), graduated from Chavón in 2004 and then studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, in Mexico City. Raquel Paiewonsky won with a piece called Interludio (Interlude); she graduated from both Chavón (1991) and Parsons (1993). Her installations, with strong feminist or social-sexual themes, have been exhibited in museums or won prizes in the Dominican Republic and internationally.
In addition to the three top winners, Yoel Bordas, a 2003 Chavón graduate, was awarded the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection Prize, consisting of a 30-day residence in a Latin American institution specializing in contemporary art.
The XXIV Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes was judged by a panel of three internationally recognized experts: Ivo Mesquita, director of the Pinacoteca of Sao Paulo; María Inés Rodríguez, curator of the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, in Mexico City; and María Elena Ditrén, director of the Museo de Arte Moderno of Santo Domingo. Prizes were presented by the Fundación Eduardo León Jimenes and the Centro León, in Santiago de los Caballeros. The competition is underwritten by Grupo León Jimenes, the Cervecería Nacional Dominicana (producers of Presidente beer), and the Banco León.
Article contributed by Stephen Kaplan – Thank you Stephen!
Stephen Kaplan is the Rector of the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design
A component of The Altos de Chavón Cultural Center Foundation, a U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity, the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design has been graduating students from its two-year associate-degree program, affiliated with New York City’s prestigious Parsons “The New School For Design” since 1983.
Three majors are offered: Graphic Design, Fashion Design, and Fine Arts/Illustration. In addition, The School has developed a state-of-the-art Certificate Program in Digital Design.
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