In the Studio: This Must Be the Place – Nitza Tufiño

Nitza Tufiño, a Puerto Rican artist, will be in conversation with Carla Stellweg, art historian.

Join us live on Instagram from your phone, or watch on YouTube after, for a series of conversations with some of the artists of This Must Be the Place: Latin American Artists in New York, 1965–1975 to bring Americas Society's Visual Arts public programs to your home. Every other Wednesday this month, artists will dialogue with our guest host, Carla Stellweg, to talk about their work and practice.

About the artist

Nitza Tufiño (b. Mexico City, 1949) was raised between Puerto Rico and New York City. Tufiño is a recognized muralist, public artist, printmaker, and painter based in New York City. She obtained her BFA from the Academia San Carlos from the Universidad Autonoma in Mexico City and holds an MS in Urban Affairs from Hunter College, CUNY. She received a HUD Scholarship and is an Urban Affairs HUD Fellow. As a community activist and art educator, she has helped found established community-based organizations and art institutions in New York City such as Loisaida, Inc., Taller Boricua, El Museo del Barrio, Friends of Puerto Rico dba, Cayman Gallery, and Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art (MOCHA). As a public artist and muralist, she has been commissioned by the East 3rd Street Music School in Manhattan, the NYC Board of Education, New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, New York City Health and Hospital Corporations, La Guardia Community College, Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Hospital for Special Care to develop and create murals for their institutions. She established the Muralism Program at Central Connecticut State University.

She is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions. She was the first female artist of Taller Boricua and is presently the Director of the Rafael Tufiño Printmaking Workshop (RTPW) at Taller Boricua.

About the guest speaker

Carla Stellweg is an independent consultant specializing in Latin American and Latinx art and artists. Throughout her career, she has worked as a museum and non-profit director, writer, editor, curator, and professor. Carla is considered a pioneer promoter and facilitator in Latin American international contemporary art. She was and continues to be instrumental in introducing many young and mid-career artists from Latin America, Latinx-U.S., Cuba and the Caribbean producing conceptual, socially-engaged art in both new and traditional media, either working in New York or from around the world.Along with the collectives Museo Latinoamericano and MICLA, many of which are exhibited in This Must Be the Place she created the artist book Contrabienal in 1971 in response to an international call to boycott the XI São Paulo Biennial in protest of the censorship and torture in dictatorial Brazil.

Visit the Americas Society Visual Arts YouTube Channel for recordings of In the Studio Series and other previous events.

Follow the conversation on Instagram: #IntheStudioAS | @americassociety.visualarts

More digital content from Visual Arts at Americas Society:

• Check out the current exhibition This Must Be the Place: Latin American Artists in New York, 1965–1975 and read the exhibition catalogue.
• Check out the current iteration of our Flag Series: Felipe Mujica — Estrella Distante.
• Read about the previous exhibition Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour.
• Read the exhibition catalogue for Joaquín Orellana: The Spine of Music.
• Watch videos of recent events:
  • Terence Gower: The Good Neighbor
  • Terence Gower and Mexican Modernism
  • Reflections on Joaquín Orellana's Marimba Imaginaria
  • In Discussion: Presenting Biennial FEMSA XIV
  • Art at a Distance: Promoting Visual Arts during the Health Crisis