Art Museum of the Americas to Present Art After Dark 6 Next Month

AMA | Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Friends of AMA announce the sixth edition of Art After Dark. The popular after-hours event brings art and music lovers together for one night to celebrate al fresco in the lush French gardens of the OAS.

This year will include singer Matias Aguayo from Chile, performance art by Dominique Paul from Canada and her Americas' Folly, and Washington DC DJ Kelton Higgins from the United States. The main visual backdrop of this event consist of giant video art projections on the OAS impressive historic building façade. Videos are currently being selected from a call for entries made in the Latin America, the US, the Caribbean and Spain. AMA's new exhibition Waterweavers: The River in Contemporary Colombian Visual and Material Culture will stay open late for the occasion. The VIP areas and raffles also return, as enticing as ever.

Matias Aguayo, Chilean-born and German-raised, has made a varied body of genre defying/melding work- a blend of deep shadows framed by blinding tropical sun. No matter the tag placed on his tracks, the primary focus and platform for building his music is, what he has always considered his main instrument, his voice. Calling upon his young adult background within the theatre, Aguayo uses his voice to slip into different roles and imitate sounds to creating an aural illusion. This allows him to use a handful of machines and a microphone, to creating sonic ambiguity between vocals and instrumentation, bringing a surge of spontaneity to his recordings and intensely reactive improvisational element live sets as he feeds off the audience and layers his narratives. Aguayo has taken advantage of his years touring to explore his own musical investigations and create an internationally flavored sonic palate. He continues to deepen his relationship with artists from different places on this planet. His DJ sets move beyond standards, implementing his voice and using percussion he plays a seductive game with the audience.

Canadian artist Dominique Paul shares her time between Montreal and New York. Since 2002, she has presented more than 20 solo exhibitions in North America and Europe. With the Americas' Folly performance art event, she brings attention to rising inequalities and environmental concerns. The project consists of an impressive procession of themed dresses, performed in the garden between the OAS Main Building and AMA. Each dress will have a specific theme presenting data in a unique way, commenting on the increasing social inequalities and over-consumption of natural resources, climate change and rising inequality. Americas' Folly presents data and themes in a unique way to bring attention to those issues among today's environment of information overload. The description of the theme of each dress will be sung live by a classical singer.

AAD's 2016 DJ Kelton Higgins is best known as one of the multi-award winning Fatback DJs. His career started as a hobby in the 90's, playing house parties and hosting raves around Washington, D.C. Since the early 2000's he has been a professional DJ at both clubs and finer private events throughout the region. Kelton currently works with several of the Mid-Atlantic's leading DJ booking agencies and designs & installs audio systems for clubs, bars, restaurants and homeowners who are passionate about sound.

"As the OAS' cultural component, AMA is responsible for publicizing and promoting the mission of the Organization in the Washington, DC area through high profile cultural events like Art After Dark. AAD also is our signature fundraising event that allows the museum to maintain a vigorous schedule of exhibits and programs for our members and museum visitors. We are keen on supporting artistic expressions that advance democratic values, peace, diversity, tolerance, justice and human rights in a way that transcends through craftsmanship, ingenuity and content," says museum director Andrés Navia.

With its unique regional focus, AMA exhibits works by established and emerging artists and alternates its with permanent collection exhibits. AMA's collection of modern and contemporary Latin American and Caribbean art is one of the most vital of its kind in the United States.

Staged in collaboration with the Friends of AMA, Art After Dark allows AMA to bring out some of the most innovative emerging artists of the Americas.

IF YOU GO:

ART AFTER DARK 6
AMA | ART MUSEUM of the AMERICAS
ORGANIZATION of AMERICAN STATES
201 18th St, NW, Washington, DC 20006
Friday, August 28
8PM - 1AM

VIP Section - Drinks Included
-express check-in (skip the line)
-exclusive VIP bar area adjacent to the stage and where the performers will be hanging out with you with exclusive drinks and bites.

General Section - Drinks Included
-Famosa Beer will be on site giving out this Guatemalan beer in the garden
-Wine and sparkling wine will also be served

Video art projected on the historic OAS headquarters building

A variety of food trucks will be on-site for the event

Cost:
General $50
VIP $90 (includes private bar and area, a one-year AMA membership, and express check-in)

Raffle:
5 tickets for $20, prizes TBA

Entertainment:
-Music by Matias Aguayo (Chile)
-Performance art by Dominique Paul (Canada)
-DJ Kelton Higgins (United States)
-Outdoor, projected video art