While the art world is paying belated attention to Puerto Rico, native art space Embajada Gallery is putting down roots

In 2012, Puerto Rico passed two laws granting significant tax exemptions to new residents. The idea was to encourage growing companies and investors to settle on the Caribbean island, creating jobs and boosting the local economy in the process. But over the past decade, as developers, cryptocurrency investors, and other wealthy outsiders flocked to Puerto Rico in search of a tax haven, locals have been increasingly displaced. Real estate prices have risen, as has the cost of living. The inequality gap is wider than ever. That’s why Manuela Paz and Christopher Rivera, partners in life and work, bought a new building for their gallery Embajada in the capital, San Juan, they saw it as a kind of political gesture. The only way to “fight gentrification,” Paz said, “is to own property.” “Because it’s a small gallery, it’s the only way to survive,” Rivera reiterated. “That’s what usually kills galleries – the rent. It is impossible.” “Buying something,” he added, “is a statement.”

< /div> Installation view of “Tamo aquí (we here)” in Embajada, November 5-15. January 2022. Courtesy of Manuela Paz. Embajada inaugurated its new space last weekend with the opening of a group exhibition aptly named “TAMO AQUÍ” or “WE HERE”. The event marked the beginning of a new chapter for the gallery, which Rivera says was ready to “grow up.” (He meant that somewhat literally: When Embajada started in 2015, it was in a building owned by Rivera’s family. It was previously a sex toy store run by his aunt. She also ran a strip club next door.) Among the participants in the exhibition are three artists the gallery has just added to its roster: Nora Maité Nieves, Chaveli Sifre, and Maria “Lulu” Varona. Embajada’s new phase comes amid the institutional art world’s increased — and long overdue — interest in Puerto Rico’s robust art scene. In September, Paz and Rivera organized an expansive exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) that reimagined a number of landmark projects that took place in Puerto Rico between 2000 and 2016, including the Gran Tropical Bienals; the PR invitations from M&M Proyectos; and a series of shows presented in a cave that Rivera herself helped put together. Like “TAMO AQUÍ”, the CAM show also has a title that could also serve as Embajada’s mission statement: “We didn’t ask for permission, we just did it…”

Installation view of “Tamo aquí (we here)” in Embajada, November 5-15. January 2022. Courtesy of Manuela Paz. “There was so much passion for everything that Puerto Rico has, what has its perks and minutes,” Paz said, “but we didn’t want that [lose] this story of what influenced such a thriving Puerto Rican scene today. It was these important exhibitions that laid the foundation for the generation of artists that we are showing that are now getting a lot of attention.” This fall, Embajada’s joint stand with the Curro Gallery, which showed a solo presentation of works by Mexican artist Claudia Peña Salinas, won the prize again this fall Sauer Prize for the best exhibition stand in the Focus section of the Armory Show. Now the couple are returning to New York for a series of events centered around the Whitney, where they still maintain deep ties to the art world (Paz also serves as director of development and strategic planning for Independent Curators International). The upcoming exhibition of the museum “No existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican art after Hurricane Maria.” Paz jokingly dubbed it the “unofficial Puerto Rican arts week.” For his part, Embajada is collaborating with gallery ProxyCo in downtown New York to host an exhibition featuring works by three artists, all of whom will also be appearing on the Whitney show: Yiyo Tirado Rivera, Sofía Gallísa Muriente and Gabriella Torres Ferre . After New York comes Florida, where Paz and Rivera will present the work of 10 Puerto Rican artists at NADA Miami.