Press Release

At the close of spring, Gallery | 49 is proud to usher in the summer season with a solo exhibition of THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE by Latino - American artist, Eugene Rodriguez. Presented in two parts: a series of oil paintings and an experimental
narrative video; this presentation—moving, demonstrative, as it is timely—will run from June 10th to July 12th, 2004. An opening reception, at which the artist will be
present, will be held Thursday, June 10th, 6-8 PM, 2004.

A third generation Latino, born and raised in California, Rodriguez, in his video works and oil paintings, seeks to address the hardships faced by the first wave of immigrants from Mexico: migrant farm work, subhuman housing, low wages docked at the whim of the hirer, filth, sickness, an eternal diet of beans and, above all, the esteem-lowering inability to understand or stand up for oneself in English. Spawning the second generation of Latinos, these immigrants taught their children the values of hard work, learning English, attending school, acquiring vocational skills as the means of escaping the ghetto and rising to the middle class. Emphasized, too, by these immigrant parents was the need to vote, thus forming a Latino political bloc whose demands candidates running for office had to pay attention to.

Today, the third generation of Latinos—who in ever-growing numbers are participating in the American dream—possess graduate school degrees, and prominent positions in business, education, communications, the arts and politics, as well as the property, wealth and self-esteem that accompany success. Considering himself one of the “risen”, third generation Latino artist/teacher Rodriguez, a secure member of the middle class—with all its implicit opportunities, choices, sophisticated life style, social mobility—urges his peers to “remember where they came from” and assist the rising Latinos to become the “risen” in terms of class, finances, education and, most important, political clout.

Eugene Rodriguez's “The Middle of Somewhere” exhibition will be on display through July 12, 2004. For further information please contact Monica A. Rotaru at 212.767.0855 or info@gallery49.com