Painting liberation: 1998 and its pivotal role in the formation of a new Boricua political art movement

In the 1990 s, identity-driven art was celebrated as multiculturalism and political correctness became the new trends. During this period, identity was weighing most heavily on the minds of Puerto Ricans as the year 1998 marked a full century of U.S. political domination over Puerto Rico. Consequently, a group of artists went well beyond the identity question by developing a new form of liberation art to explicitly denounce colonialism. This essay focuses on the young artists, working in New York and Philadelphia primarily, who worked both individually and within creative collectives to cultivate radical approaches to a new Boricua political art movement. It discusses the development of such visual art and multidisciplinary initiatives and how they have gained significant momentum since 1998 to assert themselves unapologetically in the new millennium as they continue to work towards an independent Puerto Rico.