National Portrait Gallery features Latino artists

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Six contemporary Latino artists are featured in a new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

The museum says its new exhibit, “Portraiture Now: Staging the Self,” is part of a series of exhibits showcasing creative 21st century portrait artists.

The show features the work of David Antonio Cruz, Carlee Fernandez, María Martínez-Cañas, Rachelle Mozman, Karen Miranda Rivadeneira, and Michael Vasquez.

Curators say these artists present identities theatrically in order to rid portraits of their tradition of fixing a person in space and time. Some of their works tell stories from their past, manipulate self-portraits or superimpose portraits of loved ones onto their own portraits.

Some of the artists reference their Latino heritage in their works, and others do not.

“Staging the Self” in on view until April 2015.