Erika Morillo, Umbral

December 5–29, 2019
First Thursday opening reception: December 5, 6:00–9:00 PM
Artist talk: Thursday, December 5, 5:00 PM

Blue Sky Gallery
122 NW 8th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97209 USA
503-225-0210
Tuesday – Sunday, 12 – 5 pm
First Thursday 6 – 9 pm
bluesky@blueskygallery.org
http://www.blueskygallery.org/
All Blue Sky events and programs are free and open to the public.

Umbral, which means “gateway” or “portal” in Spanish, is a series by Erika Morillo focused on her young son. Through her contemplative black-and-white images and accompanying poetry, viewers are given a glimpse of her son’s inner world, as well as Morillo’s introspections as a single parent.

“Becoming a single mother at a young age proved frightening to me, and not for the obvious reasons. I felt a huge responsibility to create a nurturing childhood for him, different from the dysfunctional one I had lived. With these images I wanted to intervene, to somehow create a magical space that could lessen his generational baggage. With this project I aim to explore both my fantasies of what childhood should be and the freedom my son needs to live his own reality.”

Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Erika Morillo is a freelance photographer and artist based in New York City. She studied clinical psychology and sociology, which influenced her to photograph as a way to understand her family dynamics and the social environment she inhabits. Her work focuses on the issues of family, inner-city life and the finding of identity. Her photographs have been published and exhibited nationally and internationally. She is currently pursuing an MFA at Image Text Ithaca and lives in Manhattan with her son Amaru.