Meet MICHAEL PRIBICH and ESPERANZA CORTÉS | Visual Artists

We had the good fortune of connecting with MICHAEL PRIBICH and ESPERANZA CORTÉS and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi MICHAEL PRIBICH and ESPERANZA CORTÉS, is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
An art practice requires a daily commitment, and wearing many different hats. We keep our work going both privately and publicly, and we try to maintain a tight grasp onto the vision of what is important to us.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Michael: My art practice is informed by the social conditions of labor. This exploration embraces many types of labor including New York City restaurant cocineros, sugar cane workers, and farm workers everywhere. My family history informs my practice where labor was a frequent topic of conversation at home. Grandparents on both sides immigrated into the United States and worked as service workers. My Mother’s parents immigrated from México and worked as farm and cannery workers. My current work is informed by the colonial labor history of México. We just visited the port city of Vera Cruz where the first African slave ships arrived into México around 1520. The impact of this historic and ominous setting will imbue my ongoing practice.

Esperanza: My birthplace, Colombia, profoundly impacts my multidisciplinary practice. It drives my interest and investigation of the art traditions, rituals, music, dance, medicine, histories, and lands of the Americas. I utilize a wide variety of materials and artistic techniques, often in combination with reworked found objects impregnated with cultural symbols that act as sites of memory. I aim to reveal the forgotten histories essential to the understanding of the Americas, while highlighting the cultural encounters that continuously shape resistance. My practice explores the complexities of identity in the face of enduring colonization, and raises critical questions about the politics of erasure and exclusion.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In New York our favorite places are the cheap ones! Some examples of our favorite things to do: The Stanton Island Ferry puts you onto New York Harbor for a 45 minute boat ride with the best views in the world. Free!
Brooklyn Bridge: Walking over the bridge is a lot of fun. (free) Many restaurants and bars on both sides (not free)
Metropolitan Art Museum: (Free for New York residents). The collection is so huge that it becomes like visiting a city of art with many neighborhoods.
Central Park, free. Always fascinating and lively.
The Brooklyn Museum is one of the cities gems. So is the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
Art crawl in the lower east side and Chelsea neighborhoods. (free)
Subway ride to Coney Island and Rockaway have great beaches, and are culturally dense places. ($2.75 subway cost one-way)
Oyster Bar inside Grand Central Station. Classic and delicious.
42 Street NY Public Library is unbelievable. (free) Next door at Bryant Park is the Bryant Park Grill. Not cheap but very good with indoor murals.
During the season a subway ride to Yankee Stadium or Mets Stadium is a great cultural event.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
For Esperanza the shoutout goes to her parents Alejandro and Blanka Cortés and to her Colombian heritage.

For Michael the shoutout goes out to artist friend, mentor and supporter George Longfish.

Website: http://www.michaelpribich.com; http://www.esperanzacortes.com/

Instagram: Esperanzacortes11 michael_pribich

Linkedin: Michael Pribich ; https://www.linkedin.com/in/esperanza-cortés-4a3ba726

Facebook: Michaelpribich

Image Credits
Michael Pribich: Olla Chata, dipdych drawing, 2023, 30 x 44″ graphite on paper photo credit Michael Pribch Michael Pribich: Wheelbarrow; 2023, drawing collage, 22 x 30″ graphite, 22k gold leaf on paper, Photo credit Michael Pribich Michael Pribich: Still image 16 Ways to Stack an Olla Chata;. Photo Credit Michael Pribich Michael Pribich, Black Support, 2021, photo credit, Michael Pribich Esperanza Cortés: Colonial Blues, 2015, photo credit Max Yawney Esperanza Cortés: La Cordobesa,2017, photo credit Max Yawney Esperanza Cortés, SECOND SIGHT, 2008 – 2018, photo credit Max Yawney Esperanza Cortés: CHARLOTTE; 2019, installation, Photo Credit Mitchell Kearney