CCA News

XXII Eduardo León Jimenes Competition of Art Honors Graduate Student's Photography

Posted on Saturday, November 1, 2008, by Jim Norrena

Graduate Design student Indhira Rojas (Indhira Susana Rojas Sánchez) earned top prize in the Fine Art Photography category at the XXII Eduardo León Jimenes Competition of Art (Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes). The exhibition is organized by Centro León in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

Indhira Rojas's diptych digital photography piece, Feminine Resistance (2006), reflects on themes of sexuality and aggression and will become a part of the institution's permanent collection. Each winning artist in the four categories—photography, painting, drawing, and installation—received a prize amount equivalent to approximately $7,000. Their works will be on exhibit at the Centro León from October 17, 2008, to January 25, 2009.

The biannual contest is the longest-running private art contest in the Caribbean that began in 1964 with the support of the Group León Jimenes. Local and international art creators and professionals who are associated with the visual arts come together to "promote a democratic exchange of ideas, practices and artistic genres, as well as to stimulate in the participants—artists and public in general—the critical observation, the taking part analysis, and the reflection." (Centro León)

For the XXII edition at the Center Leon, which took on organizing the contest beginning with the XX edition, its lounge has been composed of 66 works by 55 artists that capture a sampling of the Dominican Republic's diverse and political visual contribution to the arts via its emerging generations of artists. Personal or autobiographical topics among the works include environmental, rights of speech, genre, local matters (violence and corruption)—all of which radiate outward to depict a framework of a lager global concern.