Héctor “Tito” Matos was born in 1968 in Villa Palmera, a poor neighborhood of Santurce, Puerto Rico. From an early age he was uncovered to plena, a stylistic style that, together with bomba, is the guts and soul of Afro-Puerto Rican music and expresses the social expertise of Puerto Rico’s African-descended inhabitants. Matos’s group Los Pleneros de la 21 was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award for his or her Smithsonian Folkways album Para Todos Ustedes. See extra info on Matos’s work at Folkways/Smithsonian.
The exhibition “Tito Matos: Una vida plena”–devoted to the late plenero Tito Matos, is on view on the Abrazo Gallery at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Middle, situated at 107 Suffolk Road, New York, New York. The venture, developed by José Luis Gutiérrez and curated by Mariana Reyes, in collaboration with La Goyco’s La Casa de la Plena, contains work by José Luis Gutiérrez Reyes, Ivelisse Jimenes, and Noelia Quintero. The exhibition might be on view till June 11, 2023.
The Clemente is a proud supporter and collaborator of the late Tito Matos’ final necessary venture La Casa de la Plena: a cultural and analysis house devoted to the historical past of Puerto Rico plena and its efficiency. For this exhibition we companion with longtime collaborator Mariana Reyes, because the curator of Una Vida Plan, who along with La Goyco make homage to his legacy and the humanities and cultural significance of la Plena in Puerto Rico and the world. A trans-local partnership with La Casa de la plena kicking off with this exhibition in NYC April twenty first and culminating in June with Tito Matos Pageant in Puerto Rico.
Opening April 21, 2023, Tito Matos: Una vida plena, is an exhibition comprising a group of on a regular basis objects that displays among the life power of this necessary musician and multi-faceted artist, who left us in January of 2022.
From Matos’ shirts to his devices, and different on a regular basis gadgets and instruments, the gallery’s narrative highlights Tito’s prodigious expertise, and his many achievements together with diplomas, awards, newspaper clippings, and songs.
The venture, developed by José Luis Gutiérrez with the curatorial recommendation of Mariana Reyes, is a part of the collective mourning course of after Tito’s premature passing.
The gallery can even function a bit by the Puerto Rican artist Ivelisse Jiménez, a part of a collaboration with Tito. Three video-podcast episodes of La casa de la plena Tito Matos: Gente Tropical, produced by Jonathan Vázquez and Noelia Quintero, might be recorded at The Clemente. [. . .]
See extra info and photographs of the opening at https://www.theclementecenter.org/exhibitions-1/una-vida-plena
Examine Tito Matos at https://folkways.si.edu/tito-matos-puerto-rican-plena-drummer/latin-world/music/article/smithsonian and https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/29/arts/music/hector-tito-matos-dead.html