Mark Your Calendar Now: Join Us In Harlem November 7

Claire Oliver Gallery Is Proud To Present:

WE AMERÍCANS
A group exhibition of Puerto Rican American Artists  
CURATED BY RUBEN NATAL-SAN MIGUEL

HONORING PUERTO RICAN HERITAGE, HISTORY, AND THEIR DIASPORIC ROOTS, THIS EXHIBITION FEATURES 11 ARTISTS AND WILL BE INSTALLED ACROSS ALL THREE FLOORS OF THE GALLERY.

NOVEMBER 7, 2025 – JANUARY 3, 2026
 
CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION WITH THE ARTISTS: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 6-8 PM

Claire Oliver Gallery is proud to announce We AmeRícans, curated by acclaimed photographer and curator Ruben Natal-San Miguel, on view November 5, 2025 - January 3, 2026. Opening during National Puerto Rican Heritage Month, the exhibition brings together multiple generations of Puerto Rican artists: Carlos Betancourt, Elsa María Meléndez, Erica Morales, Ruben Natal-San Miguel, Dave Ortiz, Felix Plaza, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Nitza Tufiño, Beatriz Williams, James Cuebas, and Danielle de Jesus; artists whose works reflect the history, resilience, and cultural contributions of the Puerto Rican community. The exhibition title is inspired by the celebrated 1985 poem AmeRícan by Tato Laviera, a pioneering Nuyorican poet whose work embraced cultural hybridity, identity, and pride. We AmeRícans features artists whose practices span painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, textiles, and performance, creating a multi-vocal portrait of Puerto Rican identity and its diasporic reach.

“This exhibition is both a celebration and an act of preservation, documenting the creativity, strength, and ongoing impact of Puerto Rican artists across generations,” says curator and artist Ruben Natal-San Miguel. “Through their work, we see not just personal narratives, but the collective story of migration, labor, resilience, and cultural pride.”

Claire Oliver adds, “We are honored to present this important exhibition during National Puerto Rican Heritage Month, continuing our mission to support artists whose work expands our understanding of history, identity, and community.”

Recent Museum Aquisition:

Elsa Maria Melendez
Milk, 2020
canvas with silkscreen and embroidery
North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks ND

Interview at Revista Plástica, Puerto Rico, 2025

https://www.revistaplasticapr.org/post/el-tiempo-ciclico-segun-la-artista-elsa-maria-melendez?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLOxedleHRuA2FlbQExAAEeRp9m_7zkQ1m0e_JDTpa8ozBghDCPJl_eOmlp3aV2Ys2_bUkd8chORhI9aZM_aem_O6ZZ3wz2Xx-XwXrfaU-yKA

-Zubizarreta, Denise, “Elsa María Meléndez: Sewing Resistance, Stitching Truths (2025, March).

https://latinamedia.co/elsa-maria-melendez/?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwKotgJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp__y5uHastpweJs-RLA6EEZQmzTvYzzWFsjxRcSO-BUFbonf9OLCM7RfpoFp_aem_qfL9SntGbcuzpedWpQP8bA

-Valdés Díaz, Samantha, “Elsa María Meléndez en la XV Bienal de La Habana”, Socializarte, #8, Departamento de Historia del Arte de la Facultad de Artes y Letras, Editorial de Publicaciones Académicas, Universidad de La Habana, Cuba, (2025, March), June, 1, 2025,

https://fayl.uh.cu/fondo-yolanda-wood/boletin- socializarte/?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwKowtNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp1KuiKvAFdTrOvm- vUEOHOzrJzEr3jcpSIqbqOle1L6SjLAUTTlo3c7KTzO__aem_CNKbbNhJjZZANToBBdC8HA 

Review 15th Havana Biennial: La tradición se rompe pero cuesta, Museo Nacional de La Habana, 2025

https://www.revistaplasticapr.org/post/la-tradicion-se-rompe-pero-cuesta-las-mujeres-artistas-del-caribe-en-la-xv-bienal-de-la-habana?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLOxtVleHRuA2FlbQExAAEeUfBYfeJu0iIEUYeM_5RX7jx_BuNzky8oSaJYMOQ4gVhHyMuPmuQtxYLpmmI_aem_O6ZZ3wz2Xx-XwXrfaU-yKA

National Portrait Gallery Announces Elsa María Meléndez as Winner of the 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition’s People’s Choice Award

“The Outwin 2022” Exhibition To Tour Starting Spring 2023

October 26, 2022

News Release

Credit: “Milk” by Elsa María Meléndez. Canvas with silkscreen, embroidery, ink, and other textiles. 2020 Collection of the artist. Copyright Elsa María Meléndez.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Elsa María Meléndez of Puerto Rico as winner of the People’s Choice Award for the museum’s 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Held every three years, the Portrait Gallery’s national competition results in an exhibition highlighting the latest in contemporary portraiture from across the United States and its territories. As part of the competition, the Portrait Gallery invites viewers to vote for their favorite finalist included in the competition’s resulting exhibition. Viewers—both in-person and remote— were able to cast votes online for their favorite of 42 portraits included in “The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today.” Meléndez’s winning textile work “Milk” (2020) remains on view in Washington, D.C., through Feb. 26, 2023, before the exhibition tours to select cities across the U.S. 

Created six months into the COVID-19 lockdown, “Milk” depicts Meléndez charging forward in a large-scale portrait using her own likeness combining silk, drawing and various needlework techniques. The figure carries a limp bull with milk dripping from her breasts in a comment on gender violence which escalated in Puerto Rico during the pandemic. Feminist organizations took to the streets demanding the government declare a state of emergency in response to an increase in domestic abuse against women. The milk reaffirms the strength of women as a life force while the bull, tamed momentarily with breast milk, might be read as a critical comment on how women can also “nurse the beast of patriarchy,” said Meléndez.  

“Our congratulations go out to Elsa María Meléndez whose portrait encapsulates the artist’s fight on gender equality,” said Taína Caragol, director of the 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and curator at the National Portrait Gallery. “It is also notable that the voters have recognized an artwork that communicates the universality of the women’s struggle for equity and respect both in Puerto Rico and globally. This is the second consecutive time that a Puerto Rican artist wins the People’s Choice Award. We are delighted for them and for all Latinx artists.”

“The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today” will go on tour starting in 2023 to select venues including Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida, April 8, 2023–Oct. 8, 2023; Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Nov. 3, 2023–Jan. 21, 2024; and Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, Feb. 17, 2024–May 5, 2024.

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the multifaceted story of the United States through the individuals who have shaped American culture. Spanning the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives tell the nation’s story.

The National Portrait Gallery is located at Eighth and G streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Information: (202) 633-1000. Connect with the museum at npg.si.edu and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/national-portrait-gallery-announces-elsa-maria-melendez-winner-2022-outwin

# # #

It’s official! I am Commended at the National Portrait Gallery’s 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. See my work on view @smithsoniannpg in April 2022 #Outwin2022 #myNPG

View show here: https://portraitcompetition.si.edu/exhibition/2022-outwin-boochever-portrait-competition/

The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today

April 30, 2022 - February 26, 2023

Finalists Announced in Sixth Triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition

Selected Artworks Will Be Exhibited in Major Exhibition and Tour

Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2022 Finalists:

Holly Bass, Washington, D.C.
Lois Bielefeld, Chicago
Gustave Blache III, New York, N.Y.
Rebecca Blandón, Queens, N.Y.
Frank Blazquez, Albuquerque, N.M.
Clarissa Bonet, Chicago
Donna Castellanos, Elmhurst, Ill.
Jess T. Dugan, St. Louis
Michelle Elzay, New York, N.Y.
TR Ericsson, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Adama Delphine Fawundu, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Paula Gillen, Boulder, Colo.
Rigoberto González, Edinburg, Texas
Kira Nam Greene, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Inga Guzyte, Santa Barbara, Calif.
Mari Hernandez, San Antonio, Texas
David Hilliard, Boston
Keegan Holden, Los Angeles
Pao Houa Her, Blaine, Minn.*
Tom Jones, Madison, Wis.*
Laura Karetzky, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Khánh H. Lê, Washington, D.C.
Timothy Lee, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Riva Lehrer, Chicago
Jarod Lew, Beverly Hills, Mich.
Tim Lowly, Elk Grove Village, Ill.
Narsiso Martinez, Long Beach, Calif.
Rania Matar, Brookline, Mass.
Elsa María Meléndez, Caguas, Puerto Rico*
Cheryl Mukherji, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Marianna T. Olague, El Paso, Texas
Maia Cruz Palileo, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Joel Daniel Phillips, Tulsa, Okla.*
Melissa Ann Pinney, Evanston, Ill.
Stuart Robertson, San Francisco*
Robert Schefman, West Bloomfield, Mich.
Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Los Angeles
Josephine Sittenfeld, Providence, R.I.
Grade Solomon, Fredericksburg, Va.
Ilene Spiewak, West Stockbridge, Mass.
Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Brooklyn, N.Y.*
Vincent Valdez, Houston*

*Denotes prizewinner