The Bronx-based Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. says it is sponsoring Garifuna artist Isidrao Sabio’s participation in Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education Gallery Exhibition in the Bronx.
The Coalition said the art gallery exhibition and related public programs comprise the winter season of “¡CelebrARTE!,” Casita Maria’s South Bronx arts and culture series.
The exhibition runs from Dec. 5, 2019 to Feb. 28, 2020, at Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education, 928 Simpson St., Bronx.
The Coalition said Sabio began drawing as a young child while growing up in a Garifuna community in Honduras.
“She has developed into an accomplished illustrator committed to creating beautiful and colorful Afrocentric paintings and cards that positively portrait the life of Garifunas and Afro-descendants worldwide,” it said. “When she couldn’t find afro-themed artwork for her new home, she started painting on canvas. Since then, she has sold many pieces nationally and internationally.”
The Coalition said Sabio has used her art to advance causes of particular interest to her, including the Garifuna experience and their plight, as well as to advocate and raise awareness about the Garifuna People.
“She depicts the Garifuna/Afrocentric experience featuring, women, children men and life experiences,” it said.
Sabio also depicts great personalities from Garifuna history, such as Francisco Morazan’s Garifuna Lt. Juan Francisco Bulnez, otherwise known as Walumugu from the Garifuna village of San Pedro Tocamacho, the Coalition said.
In 2018, the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. and El Fogon Center for the Arts presented Sabio’s “Contemporary Garifuna Art Exhibit.”
The historic event was the first by a Garifuna female visual artist in New York City. It included 18 16” x 20” and 18” x 24” Acrylic on canvas paintings.
The Coalition said visual arts and craft are “a primary means of transmitting Garifuna culture and communicating identity, place and belonging.”
“Knowledge, history and other cultural information have been orally transmitted through many generations,” it said.
