Marcos Dimas: Areito Jam

Marcos Dimas

The artwork titled Areito Jam celebrates the Nuyorican/Puerto Rican heritage and music. In Dimas’ Taino-inspired Areito Jam (Areito is a ceremonial dance, music and storytelling that is the tradition of the Taino people) painting, Dimas uses Taino symbols that look like music notes and figures dancing. Reference is also made to the jam sessions in parks and schoolyards in inner cities. This East Harlem-based visual artist leaves it up to his viewers to interpret the piece, which is one of a series of four Areito Jam scenes. “Visual art is a language in itself,” Dimas  says. “It is not a literal language. It is a visual poetry.”

Original, Areito Jam, 2007, silkscreen paint on paper, 30” x 41”

Silkscreen, Lenox acid free paper, 20’’ x 30’’ - printed by Carlos Castillo Matos