Silvano Lora
(Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1931 – 2003): Painter, sculptor and cultural manager. He is regarded as a key reference in 20th-century Dominican history for his contributions both in visual arts and in social struggles. His particular interest for encouraging democratizing spaces around the appreciation and development of art among people with limited resources finds its climax in the Marginal Biennial (1992-2002). In it, he intended to surmount the difficult access that certain manifestations of folk art had to official channels, as well as the relationship between emerging artists and established artists. He also participated in the organization of solidarity committees, in the programming of the Culture Workshop, in the direction of the Culture Commission of the Dominican Communist Party, and in public art events. But even prior to these achievements, Lora had been a radical social activist in the sixties: he was leader of the groups Arte y Liberación and Frente Cultural—intellectual collectives that, in the midst of the conflict, developed artistic activities of clear political and civic projection. For his part, his artistic work is related to themes such as human suffering and the struggles against oppression. Throughout a prolific body of work, he represented the voices of those exploited by power: Native Americans, African slaves, and working classes.
