[Author]by the El Reportero’s news services
[/Author]
Dominican singer Johnny Ventura and famous disc jockey John “Jellybean” Benitez, who has worked with artists like Madonna, will be honored on Thursday at the 9th Latin Mixx Conference in New York.
The 74-year-old Ventura will receive a lifetime achievement award for introducing the native merengue sound of the Dominican Republic to countries around the world, conference founder Kevin Montano told Efe.
This is only the second time the organization has bestowed this honor, Montano said.
Benitez will be given the Icon Award by the Latin Mixx Conference.
Panamanian singer-songwriter Ruben Blades received the award last year.
Nearly 300 disc jockeys who work in radio, online and in clubs are attending the conference, which started on Wednesday, in New York.
The event was created “to recognize what Latino DJs have done all year,” Montano said.
Prizes are handed out in 14 categories, including awards for the best DJs on the East Coast, West Coast, Midwest and South, the biggest honors at the even.
Montano, a former teacher, said he created the prizes to honor his cousin, Jason “Threat” Campbell, the first Dominican DJ on popular New York City station Hot 97.
Campbell was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2001, Montano said.
“I felt it was necessary to keep his name and work alive. I created the conference to raise the name of the Latino DJ to another level,” Montano said.
Spanish sculptor Xavier Máscaro presents exhibit in Mexico
Spanish sculptor Xavier Máscaro, who says he is “fascinated by Mexican culture,” is exhibiting his work for the first time in Mexico.
The 18 pieces on display in Mexico City were inspired by the country’s pre-Columbian civilization and seek to create “a bridge between the past and the future,” Máscaro said.
Art lovers can buy any of the pieces, which are being shown at the Galería Hispánica Contemporánea in Mexico City’s Roma district.
The sculptures are made from aluminum, which Máscaro recently began incorporating into his work.
“One thing that attracts me to sculpture is the fact that you can evoke a presence and speak of absence,” Máscaro told Efe.
The artist said sculptures allowed him to sense “that link to people who disappeared long ago,” but with whom he shared “something in common despite the passage of time and the space that separates us.”
“Goddess,” a tricolor aluminum sculpture measuring more than 1.5 meters (nearly five feet), is the main piece in the show.
The sculpture is accompanied by small masks of the same material and reflects “an enormous range of meanings,” the artist said.
Máscaro, who started his art career at 13, said he had always been attracted to iron even though he had produced works from other materials, including bronze, glass and ceramics.
The artist, who was born in 1965 in Paris and studied in Spain, said he felt “the need to work with other materials” in the past four or five years and was now using aluminum.
“I think combining iron with aluminum allows me to play with light and space, with volumes on different scales, alternating lightness and heaviness,” Máscaro said.
The exhibition, “Xavier Máscaro: Obra Reciente,” runs until Oct. 11.
