Small gallery, but big imagination centered around Felipe Galindo’s grand opening exhibit, Frida’s New York: A Sequential Art Exhibit at Word Up Bookstore in Washington Heights, New York.
His exhibition was inspired by Frida Kahlo, who visited New York back in the 1930s and 1940s. He thought about what Frida would be doing in New York and created the stories for the animation. The five sequences displayed were “Rite of Spring”, Frida with flowers in her hair because she was commonly known for it; in “Taking Liberties” she visits the Statue of Liberty and give her advice; putting on makeup and doing a “Self-Portrait”; “Bad Hair Day” is Frida in the city buying a hot pretzel and putting it her hair as an accessory; and finally, a Central Park scene with reference to the Princess and the Frog story. What made the exhibition unique were not only the animation, but that the story was told without dialogue, just images.
Galindo did not stop at just the exhibition, his ongoing project and book titled Manhatitlan: Mexican and American Cultures Intertwined were also discussed as well as another ongoing project called Poetry in Motion. This poetry you may see in several subway cars throughout the city and one of Galindo’s images accompanies a poem titled ‘To the Reader Tonight’.
The exhibition can be viewed at Word Up Community Bookshop and Arts Space, located at 2113 Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street. The gallery hours are: Tue – Fri: 3-9pm; Sat: 12-9pm; Sun: 12-6pm and the cost is free and open to the public.
You can view more about Felipe Galindo on his website.
