Sophie Rivera is a Puerto Rican-American artist and photographer born in the Bronx, New York. She is best known as a photographer whose work challenged stereotypical assumptions of Puerto Ricans in the United States. She was also an early member and instructor of En Foco, a non-profit organization that nurtures contemporary fine art and documentary photographers of diverse cultures.
Biography
Rivera was of Puerto Rican descent and was born in 1938 in The Bronx, New York. She attended the New School for Social Research and Apeiron Workshops in Millerton, New York. She was an activist, photographer and teacher. Her main focus was on photography and she was most active during the 1970s and 1980s. Her work was solely based on her neighborhood of the Bronx. She went on to be a part of the board of advisors for En Foco. Rivera became a curator and also ran a photography gallery.
Artworks
Rouge et Noir , 1977-1978, includes five colored photographs which depict bloody tampons inside a toilet bowl. Bowl Study, 1977-1978, is composed of four black and white photographs of her own feces. Both series depict different body fluids and a toilet bowl. Rivera's main focus in these series is on the female body. She photographed herself to reveal an intimate part of her body that is typically perceived as taboo by society and finds inappropriate to discuss publicly. She revisited this concept in the 1970s with self-portrait, a photograph that captures her crouching naked over a toilet bowl. In this particular piece, she is not focusing on the toilet, but on her naked body. Rivera's is most well known for her Nuyorican Portraits, 1978, a collection of black and white photographs of Puerto Ricans in her neighborhood. She asked individuals walking by her home if they were Puerto Ricans if they were, she invited them into her home and took their photo against a black backdrop. She used these photos to deconstruct the stereotypical image of Puerto Ricans and to highlight diversity, embrace their subjects' individuality and remove stigmatisation among the Puerto Rican community. Six pieces from this series were presented at the Yanke Stadium on December 14, 1989, in an exhibition titled Revelations: A Latino Portfolio. Subsequently, 36 of the fifty photographs were destroyed in studio fire. Woman and Child, 1979, is a black and white photograph of a woman and toddler sitting together in a bus or train. It was shown in the journal Heresies, in an issue that focused on the extent to which artwork by women artists challenges society's view of the female sex. Heresies concentrated on creating a dialogue between Rivera's work and the audience and aimed to build a new perception of female artists. Blizzard, 1980, is a gelatin silver print that depicts a person standing in a blizzard. Although the image is blurry, their smile is visible.
Exhibitions
Solo
1972 Third Eye Gallery, New York
1975 Goths, Demons, and others, Crossroads Gallery New York
1987 Sophie Rivera: All Hallow's Eve, El Museo del Bario, New York
''Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art'' (2013-2014)
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art was presented by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and incorporated works by a diverse set of Latino artists. The works depicted American culture as the holder of a diverse network of Latinos and represents the influence Latinos have had on American culture through their art. Two of Rivera's Nuyorican portraits was included in this exhibition. These portraits demonstrated that Latinos are not bystanders of the American culture but are helping build it. The SmithsonianAmerican Art Museum now holds two photographs from the Nuyorican Portraits.
''Radical Women: Latin America Art 1960 - 1985'' (2017-2018)
Rivera's work was showcased in the exhibition Radical Women-Latin America Art 1960-1985 that encompassed the works of Latina artists during the 1960s and 1980s. "The artists featured in Radical Women have made extraordinary contributions to the field of contemporary art, but little scholarly attention has been devoted to situating their work within the social, cultural, and political contexts in which it was made". This exhibition was held at the Hammer Museum in 2017 and then at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2018. At the Hammer exhibition, Rivera's series Rouge et Noir was shown. The exhibition in Brooklyn included Rouge et Noir as well as two photographs from the Nuyorican Portraits series. These works were added to the Brooklyn exhibit because the curators wanted to appeal to the New York community and be more representative of the East Coast artsits.
