In February 2026 the Allentown Art Museum welcomed three works by artists of Puerto Rican heritage from El Museo del Barrio in New York. The loan of the works as well as a series of free related programs offered during Verano Vibrante are made possible through the support of the Art Bridges Foundation. The works will be on view at the Museum through February 20, 2028.
Two of these artists, Nitza Tufiño and Wanda Maria Quiñones, were part of the Nuyorican Movement in the 1970s. This movement included artists, poets, and musicians who created work about the Puerto Rican experience in New York. Artists like Tufiño and Quiñones often drew inspiration from the art of the Taíno, an Indigenous people of the Caribbean, as a way of celebrating Puerto Rican identity.
Glendalys Medina, a contemporary artist, builds on the legacy of the Nuyorican movement legacy with Atabey, a multimedia work that depicts the Taíno mother goddess while also alluding to hip hop and Spanish colonization.
The three works are included in the ongoing exhibition American Art in a Global Context, which explores art history through trade, colonization, and migration. They are presented alongside other works that engage with ancestry and diaspora, including White Fence by Easton-based, Puerto Rican-born artist Angel Suarez Rosado, which addresses themes of home and spiritual protection.
The Works
Nitza Tufiño found inspiration for this couple’s stylized features in the rock carvings made by the Taíno, an Indigenous people of the Caribbean. The man has a green coquí, or frog, on his chest, and a face that echoes Taíno depictions of the sun god. The woman’s face draws from the same design vocabulary, but resembles a gas mask, perhaps alluding to the Vietnam War.
Nitza Tufiño (b. 1949), Pareja Taína, 1972, acrylic, charcoal and polyurethane on Masonite, framed: 49 x 48 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. El Museo del Barrio, New York. Museum. Purchase through the support of George Aguirre, National Endowment for the Arts, Boricua College, the Reader’s Digest Foundation and individual contributions. Photograph by Matthew Sherman.
This textile by Wanda Maria Quinones draws inspiration from petroglyphs, or rock carvings, by the Taíno. Born in New York City, the artist majored in Apparel Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and later enrolled in a study-abroad program that took her to Puerto Rico and Mexico. In her work she explores the “Indigenismo” theme by giving new life and meaning to the images left behind by her Caribbean ancestors.
Wanda Maria Quiñones, Untitled (Taino symbols), 1977, linen batik, framed: 43 x 24 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. El Museo Del Barrio. Photograph by Matthew Sherman.
Glendalys Medina creates a rich range of allusions with this work. Webs of string and wire suggest the speakers of a boombox, recalling the hip-hop culture that the artist grew up with in the Bronx. Nails evoke central African power figures, while the color gold refers to Spanish colonizers’ desire for the precious metal as well as their descriptions of the “sun-kissed” Taíno complexion.
Glendalys Medina (b. 1979), Atabey, 2022-23, plywood, nails, thread, chalkboard paint, ink, oil paint, and wire, 70 x 50 x 3 in. El Museo del Barrio, New York. Courtesy of the Artist. Photograph by Matthew Sherman.
