Latino Artist Exhibit Open at Princeton Public Library Gallery Space Until October 20th

By Cara Hughes Marcano

Phases of the Heart, an exhibit of oil paintings by Princeton-born Latino artist Marlon Davila will be on view through this weekend at the 2nd floor Reading Room Gallery of the Princeton Public Library before the exhibit closes Sunday at 6 p.m.

The works are colorful renditions often of female faces or forms with strong Latin American symbolism of both life and the after-life.

In one of the smaller paintings entitled Everyday is Valentine’s, a white woman wearing heart-colored sunglasses and doused in red hearts is followed with a series of same-sized small 12 x 12 paintings, one of a black woman also accessorized with black hearts, and a final painting on the wall in that section of a femme cyclopes, a one-eyed heart lady entitled, I heart u» 👁️♥️u.

“The inspiration behind this piece and this series of pieces is love,” Davila explained to Reporte Hispano. «Everyday is Valentines» (heart shaped lady with heart glasses) is the inspiration behind this piece is (the idea) that every day should be Valentine’s Day; why does love get to be highlighted only once a year??? So this character lives by the motto of everyday is Valentines.”

“My work explores the relationship between everyday life and the subconscious mind,” says Davila.

Davila has been painting professionally for more than a decade. A mural entitled “Journey,” he did on John St. and Leigh Avenue in Princeton, N.J. of monarch butterflies in flight on the side of a Latino-owned grocer incited heated community meetings and protests from the black community and others who have gentrified the neighborhood since it was desegregated. Folks including Dana Hughes Moorhead, a third-generation Princetonian, complained at public meetings that the mural and Davila were too Hispanic and were not black enough for the neighborhood, and that Davila should not be allowed to paint a mural in the neighborhood even though the grocery store owners, who are Latino, were in full support. Davila was born in Princeton and many of his works are about black people and black identity and black representation in religion and everyday life. That mural was completed on November 11th, 2019.

“Marlon Davila has long been a supporter of cultural events at the library. He has done two large-scale community collaborative paintings with the participants during the annual Pride Picnic organized by the library, participated with his paintings as a vendor at the Festival Cultural Latino, and had individual pieces shown during group shows,” says Janie Hermann, Adult Programming Manager at the Princeton Public Library. “In addition, he regularly supports art talks by other artists in the community. Marlon and I had been talking for two years about him having a show at the library. He was in the midst of working on the series of paintings that has become known as Phases of the Heart when we first talked 2 years ago and we decided to do the show when he felt that he had completed enough of the pieces to fill the reading room. The show was hung in mid-August and is up until October 20. Hispanic Heritage Month fell in the middle of the run of the show and Marlon liked the idea of highlighting his Hispanic Heritage in this way.”

Davila’s work has been hung at the library with price tags on the art, gallery style. This multipurpose use of the space as reading room and gallery is an important part of what the library is trying to do in having its reading rooms and spaces also double as galleries to support the viability of local artists, says Hermann.

The Princeton Public Library has an endowment of about $5 million.
“When we redesigned the second floor to create additional study rooms and places for quiet work, we needed to find a creative solution to allow us to maintain a space on the second floor to act as a public gallery. It is important for libraries to offer spaces for quiet work as well as create spaces where the community can gather. Our goal with art exhibits at the library is to showcase local artists as much as possible,” Hermann told Reporte Hispano.

“The library believes it is important to support the local community in every way from local businesses to independent artists and creators. We have a series called Listen Local that highlights local musicians as well as an annual Local Authors Day. Having local artists have a space that they can exhibit without a fee is yet another way we can support those in our community.”