Lucia Hierro’s “MamaEdita” Acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Lucia Hierro, MamaEdita, PolyOrgandi, Felt, and Digital Print on Brushed Nylon, 68 x 51 x 4 inches, 2017
Charlie James Gallery is delighted to announce the acquisition of MamaEdita from Lucia Hierro’s Mercado series by The Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Lucia’s Bag pieces present outsized shopping bags containing assortments of soft sculpture articulations of everyday grocery items, from foodstuffs, produce, market circulars, health effects, etc. The interior soft sculptures consist of digital prints on brushed suede and felt sewn around hard-celled foam interiors situated inside of Poly Organdi and taffeta fabric shopping bags. Mama Edita recalls the shopping Lucia and her mother would do for her grandmother at American stores and pharmacies before visiting the Dominican Republic. The gallery wishes to thank Liz Munsell and the entire team at the MFA Boston for their generous support of Lucia and her work.
Words from the artist on MamaEdita:
"Mama Edita is titled after my paternal grandmother who often asked my mother to bring things from NY to the DR… products which at any given time would be cheaper here than in the DR. Some Dominican Haircare products would be better and tailored to our texture hair so we would bring those back to NY. The bag speaks to this exchange/alternative economy. Her favorite Vicks VapoRub aka: The Dominican Cure-all and various beauty products make up most of the bag with the exception of a Gauguin Still-Life haphazardly thrown in the bag… an act I felt necessary since the read of my work can sometimes be exoticized. A collapsing of commerce and histories all in one schlep."
Lucia Hierro (b. 1987) is a Dominican American conceptual artist born and raised in New York City, Washington Heights/ Inwood, and currently based in the South Bronx. Lucia’s practice, which includes sculpture, digital media and installation, confronts twenty-first century capitalism through an intersectional lens. She received a BFA from SUNY Purchase (2010) and an MFA from Yale School of Art (2013). Hierro’s work has been exhibited at venues including the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery (Los Angeles), Elizabeth Dee Gallery (New York), Latchkey Projects (New York), Primary Projects (Miami), Sean Horton Presents (Dallas), and Casa Quien in the Dominican Republic. Her works reside in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, El Museo del Barrio in New York City, the Perez Art Museum Miami, the JP Morgan & Chase Collection, the Progressive Art Collection and the Rennie collection in Vancouver, among others. In 2021, Lucia’s work has been exhibited in ESTAMOS BIEN: LA TRIENAL 20/21, El Museo del Barrio’s (NY) first national large-scale survey of Latinx contemporary art featuring more than 40 artists from the US and Puerto Rico, and she is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT titled Marginal Costs. Lucia is represented by Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles.
