New exhibition at Andrew Freedman Home explores intersection of landscape and architecture

Artists Yiyo Tirado and Charlie Quezada pose in front of one of Tirado's pieces for their new exhibit, "Hora Caribe" at the Andrew Freedman Home on Grand Concourse.
Artists Yiyo Tirado and Charlie Quezada pose in front of one of Tirado’s pieces for their new exhibit, “Hora Caribe” at the Andrew Freedman Home on Grand Concourse.
Credit: Sadie Brown

A Bronx art gallery opened a new exhibit on Thursday, Oct. 24, featuring abstract works that explore the intersection of architecture and landscape.

The exhibit, called “Hora Caribe,” opened at the Andrew Freedman Home on Grand Concourse and is the brainchild of 2024 gallery fellows Charlie Quezada and Yiyo Tirado and curated by Dulcina Abreu.

Originally a home for older wealthy people who had fallen on hard times, the Andrew Freedman Home has been revamped as a cultural hub, showcasing works from resident artists and fellows like Quezada and Tirado.

Quezada and Tirado’s work synergistically points to the influence of colonialism across the development of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, diverging at their sources – colonizers and locals. Tirado, from Puerto Rico, said that his work shares a similar perspective to Quezada’s.

“We speak the same language in Spanish and also in painting and aesthetically,” Tirado said. “So, it’s not so difficult to make a correlation between both works and both practices. It’s totally related. It’s the same language in all manners.”

Tirado originally began studying mechanical engineering in 2008, pivoting to fine arts in 2010. He said he builds pieces mathematically, using precise sketches and previews before putting brush to canvas.

“I love math, I love physics, I love chemistry, I love welding, I love painting and I think they’re pretty related,” Tirado said.

Inspired largely by the coastal landscapes of Puerto Rico, Tirado paired vibrant, painted gradients of bright oranges and blues with steel rebar, a stark contrast between natural beaches and industrial development.

Puerto Rican Artist Yiyo Tirado uses both paint and steel to illustrate the ongoing development of the coastal areas of Puerto Rico. Credit: Sadie Brown

“We are in a time in the world where we are rethinking this global situation,” Tirado said. “The sea is rising and glaciers are melting. Every day we’re having less space on the coast.”

Space on the coast of Puerto Rico has been the subject of controversy, with protests erupting in recent years over beachside luxury developments displacing local residents and illegally limiting access to public beaches.

It’s a story familiar to Bronxites, many of whom were displaced during the development of Robert Moses’s Cross Bronx Expressway beginning in the 1940s’. Tirado’s paintings and the development of beaches in Puerto Rico share themes of destruction with Puerto Rican neighborhoods that were torn down to build the highway that has been called “a scar across the Bronx” by NYC transit officials. Many Jewish, Irish and Italian neighborhoods, along with African-American areas, also suffered when the controversial highway was constructed.

Andrew Freedman House’s other fellow, Quezada, presented bright, geometric works with diverging color palettes and textural elements reminiscent of rural towns in the Dominican Republic, where he researched construction methods and materials for inspiration.

“Hora Caribe” opened Thursday at the Andrew Freedman Home, featuring works from 2024 fellows Yiyo Tirado and Charlie Quezada. Credit: Sadie Brown

Quezada, from the Dominican Republic, has a background in fine arts, but when he began attending Parsons School of Design at the New School, he started to adopt a more non referential approach to his work.

“I’m super privileged to have the opportunity to come and do art school here because it broke my mind and I started thinking about and meditating on the work in a different way,” Quezada said.

Quezada’s paintings in Hora Caribe follow two contrasting color palettes: one featuring pale pastels and the other using richer, darker, bolder colors. He said the two palettes represent the colors that appear on different parts of the island. The pastels are more colonial palettes which Quezada says are more likely to be found in larger cities or areas with tourists while the richer colors are more likely to be found closer to the border with Haiti.

Although Quezada used the architecture and landscape of rural towns of the island as inspiration for his work, he said that the way houses and neighborhoods in the Dominican Republic look is still heavily influenced by its colonial history. Quezada took care to use materials similar to those that would be used constructing houses in the Dominican Republic. He mixed a derivative of calcium carbonate and reflective glass beads with paint to create a textural effect similar to the walls of homes in the Dominican Republic.

A close look reveals the subtle, yet detailed textural effect Charlie Quezada incorporates into his painting, reminiscent of the walls of houses in the Dominican Republic. Credit: Sadie Brown

Quezada said that his work speaks to more than just the landscape of rural towns in the Dominican Republic, noting that New York is a destination for Dominican immigrants.

“Most of these communities came here to work in construction sites,” Quezada said. “So, to be able to showcase work that is made with the materials that they probably relate to on a daily basis it’s also super interesting and they can get another experience with the materials.”

“Hora Caribe” is showing at the Andrew Freedman Home until Nov. 22.