‘Transcultural’

Allentown Art Museum commissions

mural by surrealist artist Rigo Peralta

Six days into the new year, the Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley made art history with the first-ever commissioned mural in the museum’s vestibule entrance.

The Allentown Art Museum commissioned surrealist artist Rigo Peralta for a three-panel mural, “Transcultural: A Mural,” on view through Jan. 14, 2018.

The mural will be dedicated at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 21 at a ceremony in the museum lobby. It will include remarks by David Mickenberg, Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley President and Chief Executive Officer; commentary by Julio Guridy, Allentown City Councilman, and a talk at 1:45 p.m. by Peralta.

There will be Dominican-inspired fare catered by Karen Hunter and Luna Bakery. The event is free and open to the public. Admission to the museum is free Sundays through the sponsorship of CrossAmerica Partners and the Gadomski Foundation.

Peralta, incorporating imagery from Taino and Mayan architecture and building on the tradition of heroic figures in mural painting, addresses personal and regional identity and history. The dynamism of his human forms belies their subservience to technology, as they meld into an industrial tableau of gears and cogs.

The composition incorporates the development of forms that emerge organically through the application of layers of paint washes and bursts with a palette of color inspired by the landscape of Peralta’s birthplace.

The Dominican-born artist based in Allentown says he “made the three-panel mural to reflect one story.” Upon closer examination, one sees that the mural portrays a canvas of stories. Peralta’s “Transcultural Mural” bridges elements of the Indigenous, the African and European cultures.

Peralta weaves into the figures a silhouette of engine gaskets that appear to symbolize how individuals can be bound by technology. The gasket silhouettes seem to hold the human figures together as if in a motorized composition.

The human figures impact the gears and cogs of machinery. The human form motions with extended arms, legs, fingers and embraces to express a basic element found in every culture: dance rituals. Whether the dance is ceremonial, salsa or merengue, jazz or swing, ballet or flamenco, through the machinery the figures appear to be dancing to free their spirits.

The dancing figures form an aesthetic that transcends the technology. The ritual of dance embraces the transcultural human spirit.

Peralta’s vivid use of acrylic paints poses another transcultural story in the stonewash sculpture figures found at the corners of the canvas. The sculpture-like figures are reminiscent of the ancient Taino Cemi God from the Caribbean.

The bared bodies on the mural give an illusion of ancient Greek mythology heroes. Overall, the mural emits a mystical dance full of radiant colors to spark a dance in us all.

The exhibition is funded by the Audrey and Bernard Berman Family Fund and the Leon C. and June W. Holt Endowment.

Peralta will give a talk at noon April 6 as part of the “Wednesdays at the Museum” series. Lunch is included. Reservations: 610-432-4333, Ext 110