La Peña Gallery
227 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701
(512) 477-6007
https://www.lapena-austin.org
Nicolás dedicates this event to the memory of Daniel Llanes
During his presentation at La Peña, Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib reconnects with neighbors and friends in Austin, where in 2024 he launched La Escuelita: A Latinx Evening School for Critical Consciousness / The Austin Texas Chapter. He will share documentation of the project and reflect on how his studio at the University of Texas at Austin became a week-long escuelita—a small, community-centered school within both the campus and the city at large. Bringing together neighbors and participants from diverse backgrounds, the program featured classes, workshops, panels, talks, performances, and lectures grounded in lived Latinx experiences.
This temporary school created space for forms of knowledge often absent from traditional academic settings, highlighting historic, herstoric, and theirstoric Latinx voices and lineages engaged in activism, organizing, and social justice in Austin and surrounding areas. Participants included Daniel Llanes, Roxana Rodríguez, Bella Varela, Pepe Coronado, Julio Pérez, Cynthia Pérez and Libby Pérez, Josefina Castillo, Wanda Montemayor, Sylvia Orozco, Carmen Zuvieta, and Oro Dance (Audrey Guerrero and Angie Egea).
Image credit: Nicolás Dumit Estévez, The Flag, 2003-2006, performance art/installation
Photo: María Alós / Courtesy of Nicolás / The Flag is in the Permanent Collection of El Museo del Barrio
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib is a social practice and performance artist whose work unfolds through everyday interactions and community-based experiences. His projects have been presented internationally at venues including MoMA, the Queens Museum, El Museo del Barrio, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, PERFORMA, the Havana Biennial, and Madrid Abierto/ARCO, among others.
He has participated in numerous residencies, including P.S.1/MoMA, Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Lower East Side Printshop, and has curated programs for institutions such as El Museo del Barrio, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, and Franklin Furnace. His publications include Pleased to Meet You: Life as Material for Art and Vice Versa and One Person at a Time.
Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and an MA from Union Theological Seminary. He has been a Social Practice Artist in Residence at the University of Texas at Austin and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow. Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, he identifies as a Bronxite since 2011.