There’s a quiet sacredness in flipping through a family photo album, pausing on each image, recalling stories and piecing together a shared history. That same familiarity comes alive in “Escenas,” or “Scenes” in English, presented by the NYU Latinx Project, where digital photographs line the gallery walls like pages of a collective family archive. The exhibition stitches individual stories into a unified narrative, forming a living, visual archive that traces family history and reconnects back to childhood.
The NYU Latinx Project promotes Latinx art and culture through creative programming, a digital publication, curatorial opportunities and fellowships for graduate students. Their most recent exhibition features works from seven independent artists based across New York, Georgia, California and the Dominican Republic. Photographs of all styles fill the space — some abstract, others instantly recognizable. Many of the images may seem mundane at first, depicting everyday routines, but each carries personal and cultural significance for the Hispanic American families represented. During National Hispanic Heritage Month, images are especially poignant, as they celebrate the pride of Hispanic communities.
Xavier Robles Armas, Events and Arts Manager at the Latinx Project and co-curator of the exhibition, told WSN that “Escenas” grew out of an open call in their Artist in Residence program. He explained that curating the show required balancing a cohesive narrative across multiple photographers’ work while preserving each unique voice. After conducting individual studio visits and reviewing submissions, Armas and his team, including co-curator Orlando Ochoa, selected artists whose work resonated with themes of family, migration and the search for belonging.
“It felt natural to present a photo show that captures the pulse of contemporary photography, but also imagines its future,” Armas said. “The way these artists approach the medium stretches and amplifies it in new directions.”
Armas highlighted one work that resonates deeply, “My Mother Standing in a Pool and Re-Embodying her Childhood Photograph at a Beach in Mexico” by Arlene Mejorado. The photograph shows Mejorado’s mother standing in a pool, in front of a white sheet draped across the fence of a California apartment complex where the artist grew up. The sheet isolates her from the apartment complex in the background. The photograph recreates an image from her mother’s youth in Mexico, where she once posed in a swimsuit with a steady gaze and gentle smile. In the pool’s reflection, her mother seems to look back at her younger self in Mexico, even as she inhabits the landscape of her daughter’s adolescence. Usually children are depicted in pools, but here, Mejorado’s mother embraces the playfulness of childhood, a gesture that bridges generations.
“That photograph stands out because it explores what it means to remember, recreate and use photography as a mode for intimate storytelling,” Armas said.
“Piñata Pull” by Damon Casarez is the largest image of the exhibition, demanding the attention of the room. A ladder dominates the center of the image, with a man perched atop holding a rope to tie a piñata. Below, a small crowd watches, their gazes lifted in a moment of playful anticipation, while a woman climbs the ladder to assist. In the background, a bounce house hints at the setting of a child’s birthday party. Displaying the energetic chaos of group gatherings, the photograph’s joy is almost audible in the overlapping flurry of movement. Casarez captures the cultural tradition of tying a piñata, with a brief pause becoming part of the larger act of preserving and passing on tradition.
“In moments of uncertainty or political threat, it’s important to find joy, community and familiarity that reflect our identity,” Armas said, emphasizing how these themes are central to the exhibition and a deciding factor in the curation process.
Andina Marie Osorio’s piece, “Untitled (Una historia de amor puertorriqueña),” features a collection of family images pasted onto a map of Puerto Rico, encased in a steel cage. The cage, reminiscent of the iron gates found throughout Puerto Rico, brings architectural elements into the work, linking physical space with personal lineage. This multimedia approach brings the piece into the viewer’s physical space, making the piece an archive of the past and an active presence in the moment.
In “Escenas,” photographs are more than frozen memories: they are afternoons spent trying to tie a piñata, weekends at the swimming pool and stories retold at family gatherings. The exhibition reminds viewers that photography can preserve not just images but the emotions, histories and connections that bind families and communities across time and space.
“Escenas” is on view until Dec. 4 on the third floor of 20 Cooper Square and is free to attend for NYU students.
Contact Maya Santiago at [email protected].
