At this Pinellas gallery, the stories of Puerto Rican artists are on display

LARGO — Identity. Place. History.

Those themes and more are explored at a new exhibition at the Gallery at Creative Pinellas. “Keepers of Heritage: Hidden Tales” showcases the diverse work of Puerto Rican artists.

Keepers of Heritage is a collective that promotes the work of Puerto Rican artists. It’s also an effort to find artists of Puerto Rican descent living in the U.S. whose stories and work aren’t connected to the island’s history of art.

It was formed when director Ángel Rivera-Morales came to Central Florida from Puerto Rico in 2012 and noticed a lack of opportunities for such artists.

In 2015, the collective had its inaugural exhibition at Orlando City Hall. Since then, the group has shown at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture in Chicago and the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala.

The Gallery at Creative Pinellas’ massive space has enabled the collective to present its largest exhibition yet, which Rivera-Morales said is also its finest.

He pointed out that Puerto Rican art is diverse and contemporary and can’t be pigeonholed.

“We have a lot to offer,” he said. “And we have a rich story, but also a story of oppression. A story of ... we had to lift ourselves up to survive.”

Indeed, the exhibition features artists working in a wide breadth of contemporary styles. They are high-caliber works that could easily hang in museums around the world — which many of them have.

The legacy of multi-generational artists is also present, with the works of students and their teachers hanging together. The works of Rivera-Morales’ own mentors, Carmelo Fontanez-Cortijo and Rafael Rivera Rosa, are included in the show.

Fontanez-Cortijo lived in New York during the 1960s when abstract expressionism ruled the art world. He used that genre to explore the Puerto Rican landscape, and Rivera-Morales likens his meditations on color to the work of Mark Rothko.

Rivera Rosa started his art career in Puerto Rico but went to New York to study at the Pratt Institute in the 1980s. He was influenced by artists like Willem de Kooning and developed his own visual language about the island.

Like his mentors, Rivera-Morales draws from the landscape but turns the reflection inward. He creates a series of celestial paintings called “Dystopian Paradise.” He’s reacting to the turmoil and unpredictability of the world by painting these universes where he feels more comfortable. He builds the paintings up using layers of solids like gesso to create texture, and uses an atomizer to spray fine mists of color.

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Jose Feliciano created sets for the stage at New York venues including the Metropolitan Opera House. His mixed-media sculpture “Fallen Angel” contains the tragedy mask for a face.

He also makes paintings reflecting on world events in South Africa and Afghanistan, like the powerful “La Carta,” which makes reference to a massacre in which children were murdered.

Joan Emanuelli Sanchez makes portraits of subjects who have been left behind by society. He found people in Kissimmee (near Orlando), where he lives, who were experiencing homelessness and interviewed them. He said that the subjects told him very few people take the time to listen to them. He tries to portray their stories so that the viewer can feel their humanity and realize that any of us could find ourselves in a similar situation.

Brenda Cruz makes photo collages in which she places herself in scenes where Puerto Rican women weren’t previously depicted, exploring cultural, societal and gender identities.

The paintings of late artist Valentin Tirado were stashed in his daughter’s basement for eight years until his son approached Rivera-Morales at his gallery in Orlando. The paintings depict the indigenous Taino people as they react to Spanish conquistadors and slave masters. In “Guarionex — God of War,” the Taino people have begun to fight back, with a powerful spirit coming from the mountains in El Yunque.

Alejandro De Jesús depicts scenes of everyday life, like a chess match and a basketball game, with the hand of a master. He was an art teacher and also an accountant, so the joke is that he doesn’t waste a stroke when he’s painting.

In “Young Basketball Players,” he shows the varied skin tones and mixed identity of Puerto Rican teenagers, who are rapt by the game and united by their fancy footwear.

With a performance by the local Cukiara ensemble of Bomba Body Dance and Drumming Academy, a recent opening reception was aptly festive for an exhibition that celebrates this rich culture.

What to know before you go to “Keepers of Heritage: Hidden Tales”

On view through Oct. 15. Free. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. The Gallery at Creative Pinellas, 12211 Walsingham Road, Largo. 727-582-2172. creativepinellas.org.