NEVILLE BEAN

Photographs by CARMEN LIZARDO

 

Carmen Lizardo is a multidisciplinary artist based in Kingston New York.  She was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated when she was in her 20s to New York City where she studied art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

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Lizardo’s photographs are autobiographical, deeply personal and culturally resonant of her ongoing quest to connect with ancestral roots.  She creates a series of narratives that explore the complexities of homeland displacement, the search for identity and retrieval of forgotten histories. The images on view in the West Strand Gallery are part of a series she titles Pretty Hair Abides to Yanking.

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Pretty Hair Abides to Yanking is a Dominican/Caribbean refrain, Pelo Bonito Aguanta Jalones, referencing racist stereotypes and bias manifested toward Black, interracial and African descent persons whose natural hair is textured, tightly coiled, and/or styled into dreadlocks, twist-outs and braiding.

 

The photographs explore the intricacies of cultural rituals, the hybridization and metamorphosis of hair as it intersects with beauty standards, race and identity.

In creating this series Lizardo comments the following:

   “My hair as an extension of my body transcends its physical nature to embody deep spiritual and emotional meaning. It carries my essence, my past, and my future. In this context, hair becomes a monument—a tangible representation of the intricate recount of lineage. It symbolizes the process of identity formation and cultural heritage, safeguarding the deeply personal markers of my experience, including ancestral memory, racial marginalization, and the means to navigate feelings of isolation and anxiety.”

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BIOGRAPHY: Carmen Lizardo earned a BFA and an MFA from Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, New York). She has received fellowships and awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Academy of Arts and Letters, En Foco, Arts Mid-Hudson, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. Lizardo has exhibited at the Museum of the African Diaspora, Samuel Dorsky Museum, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred University, NARS Foundation, BRIC, and ArtsBridge. Her work was featured on the cover page of Nueva Luz, art journal published by En Foco since the 1970s.  Her creative practice extends into public art projects with a 2024 mural commissioned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority. The mural is located at the 181st street station in New York City.  

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For more details see carmenlizardostudio.com