Artist Talk With Adrian Martinez Chavez at Real Art Ways

Press release

HARTFORD, CONN. Real Art Ways presents an artist talk with Adrian Martinez Chavez, an artist who grew up in the context of a family run restaurant in Hartford, Connecticut. The talk will be given on Friday, 12/8 at 5:30. The exhibition is on view through Sunday, December 10 2023. Gallery hours are everyday from 2-9pm. Admission is free. Real Art Ways is located at 56 Arbor Street, Hartford.

For years, Adrian Martinez Chavez has photographed his father in his family restaurant, Monte Alban Restaurant in Hartford CT. El Disco Es Cultura is an exhibition that focuses on labor, love, celebration, migration, assimilation (or lack of), and what it looks, sounds, and feels like to experience Mexican culture in the Northeast of the United States, using images of Martinez Chavez's father and his family's restaurant in Hartford.

In this artist talk, guests will have an opportunity to engage with the exhibition, while Adrian Martinez Chavez gives an overview of the works in show, discuss his progression of working with photography, and how his artistic practice incorporates time based media through films and slideshows.

The presentation of this exhibition is paired with both the audio of the kitchen and the music his father would be listening to while working. A DJ booth also becomes its own piece that draws from his family's origins in Monterrey, Mexico and its Cumbia and Sonidero culture and history. This work is a mix of Cumbia music played live with vinyl records the artist has been accumulating from the Northeast of the US to South of Mexico. During his talk, Martinez Chavez will discuss the DJ booth and his relationship to music in relation with his family history and its place in Mexican/American culture. Guests will have the opportunity to learn more about the history of Cumbian music in relation to listening to the records through the booth.

Adrian Martinez Chavez (b. 1992) is an artist and DJ working in photography, audio, video, and filmmaking. He received a BFA from the Hartford Art School, and an MFA from the Yale School of Art. His work has been exhibited regionally and nationally and can be found in public and private collections such as the Goldfarb Memorial Collection at the University of Hartford. He has been the recipient of grants and awards from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Houston Center for Photography.

Adrian's work focuses on immigrant communities living in the United States, specifically from his family’s point of view. Adrian’s family’s journey and life in the US serve as a source of inspiration in his work that revolves around ideas of love, labor, and assimilation through an intimate view of daily life in America. Adrian lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut.

Chavez is a recipient of a 2022 Real Art Award. The Real Art Awards are a juried competition open at no cost to emerging artists from the six New England states, New York, and New Jersey. The 2022 Real Art Awards were juried by multidisciplinary artist Carlos Motta, curator and creative strategist Yona Backer, and Real Art Ways Executive Director Will K. Wilkins. In addition to a cash prize and a solo exhibition, each artist receives a logistical and curatorial support throughout the exhibition process. This project is supported in part by awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation.