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ROMPE PUESTO - A PINATA-THON!  at The Bronx River Art Center

 (Photo of Risa Puno, Disco Ball Pinata artist, courtesy of Talisman Brolin)

Bronx artists strike again! Rompe Puesto, brainchild of Blanka Amezkua (featured by TheBronxRocks here and here) and Ronny Quevedo turned out to be an enormous HIT - 23 of the most fabulous and creative pinatas you can imagine! What an ingenious and wickedly delicious way to throw a party where every guest (kids and adults alike!) gets to squeal with laughter and delight and is rewarded with outrageously fun party gifts: condoms, mini booze bottles, organic tea, outlandish make-up, lingerie, pregnancy kits, and so forth! Fun, fun, fun! (And oh yeah - tons of candy and toys for the kids as well) An open bar (thanks Brooklyn Brewery!) and great music spun by DJ Juan Mapu added to the reverie….Brilliant! (*List of participating artists below)

 

BLANKA AMEZKUA, South Bronx

Blanka Amezkua has become one of my favorite Bronx artists, not only for her own highly original and fabulous work but because of her dedication to shine a spotlight on up-and-coming Bronx artists. Once a month, she opens up her home for her Bronx Blue Bedroom Project (see TheBronxRocks post here) featuring a new talent to showcase for the Bronx Trolley Tour.  Below are just a sampling of Blanka’s own work…According to Blanka herself, these embroderies are “depiction of heroines who have been liberated from the stifling territory of pulp fiction into a world where a women’s sexuality is fully eroticized on her own terms”. However you interpret them, I think they just plain ROCK! (Photos of Blanka’s pieces courtesy of Leonidas Alexandropoulos)

Blanka Amezkua immediately reminded me of an artist channeling the spirit of the great Frida Kahlo. I had the good fortune to make a pilgrimage to Kahlo’s home in Mexico City (Casa Azul) years ago, and Blanka’s Bronx Blue Bedroom Project had the same feeling of the artist’s living space becoming an intertwining extention of the art and artist herself. The idea behind the BBBP is to showcase a different artist every month – giving them the run of her Tiffany-box blue bedroom as a gallery. They in turn bring dinner, snacks and drinks for the guests who show up.  The artist this past Wednesday was the delightful Melissa Calderon.  (Send me those pics, Melissa!) But Blanka’s own work is definitely worth a visit in and of itself.  How often do you see in one collection a sculptural collage made entirely of multi-colored pipe cleaners, a figure made of several disparate and seemingly tortured doll parts and a framed thorned brassiere?!? 

I highly suggest you visit this unique artist’s home, studio and gallery – I promise it will bring out the inner-bohemian in all of you!

 (Following photos courtesy of Blanka’s Website)