CATALOGO QUINTAPATA

QUINTAPATA: STRATEGIES OF VISIBILITY AND
SELF-MANAGEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY DOMINICAN ART.
Carlos Acero Ruiz
Artistic Director of Photoimagen
President of the Dominican Association of Art Critics (ADCA/AICA)
Vicepresident of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA)
The economic crisis in which a great part of the world is living, as well as the new information
technologies, are significantly changing the way in which artists are managing their projects.
Proposals that are now visible through communities of the Internet, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, among others, have opened a window of opportunities for the
creators of the visual arts, who may find it difficult to find art galleries or physical spaces in
which to exhibit and market their art.
Until the art system can overcome this crisis, many believe that the future of art is in the
hands of the social networks and of self-management. The internet has been converted to a
platform which will serve as a showcase for virtual galleries. It is certain that the new
technologies of the digital era have produced significant changes at the time of seeing and
obtaining works of art.
The availability of space dedicated to art in the Dominican Republic has reduced considerably.
In particular, if we review the past decade, we note that although many galleries were opened,
there are more that have been closed. This, of course, means that our artists, whether
emerging or established, have had difficulty in obtaining visibility. Not all of them can obtain
access to the spaces mentioned above. It is important to indicate that, in our country, the
production of works of art falls back on the shoulders of our artists, because practically no art
gallery can provide the funds for exhibition projects, other than in exceptional cases.
In 2009, Quintapata, a group of outstanding contemporary artists, burst onto the Dominican
art scene with the presentation of the exhibition “Mover la Roca” (Move the Boulder), a
project resulting from the initiative of the Spanish Cultural Center here in Santo Domingo
under the direction of Fernando Rueda and the curatorship of Fernando Castro Flórez. In this
initial exhibition, five artists worked on, and presented, works of art independently. The artists
participating in this debut project were Belkis Ramírez, Jorge Pineda, Raquel Paiewonsky,
Pascal Meccariello y Tony Capellán, creators with much harmony and artistic affinity. They all
have successful professional careers and, if we wish to summarize their achievements, they
have gained many of the principal awards at the biennials and national competitions over the
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