(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Pro Arts Jersey City presents "Meliflua" Josué Morales Urbina Solo Exhibition from April 7–30, 2023 at ART150 Gallery. There will be an opening reception of Friday, April 7th from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. 

Meliflua says, "The inspiration for this solo exhibition installation is the contrast between memories. The first is rich and colorful from my childhood in Guatemala when my grandfather came home with a huge beehive. With all the children in awe, I remember him slicing into it; no bees, thankfully. He cut  big pieces, placing them in a container with raw honey pouring out. We rushed to try it, some spreading it on bread. I can still taste the rawness of the honey and bee’s wax. 

"The second memory informing this piece is more sobering. As a young man many years later, I saw a beekeeper using plastic bottles to keep his bees. I thought, 'My gosh, even bees live in plastic.' I thought about how everything around me is made of plastic, including this natural environment, or rather, this environment that is supposed to be ecological and green. The years have passed since these memories. My art explores ideas of attraction, such as society’s attraction to plastic, to sweetness, to consumption. For this project, I draw from these memories to build a site-specific installation attempting to invite viewers to propose their own answers or ask about the ever growing rift between nature and mankind. 

"So what does your life’s journey tell you this piece is about? I’d like to know."

Artist Statement: "Transcultural displacement: A longing for a sense of home in a foreign environment. As I mature as an artist, I’ve learned to appreciate how transcultural displacement is a major driving force for my art. Without it, I wouldn’t exist as an artist. 

"Raised in the small country of Guatemala, and having lived throughout the United States since my twenties, I am ever a foreigner between the two countries. Neither here, nor there, I create art to build a home for myself; my art practice is my home. By exploring transcultural displacement, my installations often touch closely related questions of foreignness, the impermanence of memory, transience, travel, and concepts of home, all of which range from introspective inquiry to public dialogue. 

"The materials for my installations are generated by the memories that trigger the material. The material leads the way and shows me how it behaves and reacts; it tells me what it wants to do. I also work with multiples and series; often finding that the material in one piece informs the other(s), thereby becoming a continuum body of work."

Josué Morales Urbina Based in the New York Metropolitan area, Josué Morales Urbina is an award-winning installation and sculpture artist, whose work primarily explores transcultural displacement. Frequent themes arising in his art are the pervading sense of foreignness and the impermanence of memory which he examines via contemplative abstract installations. These works are composed of a range of materials, including ordinary household objects such as, drinking straws, coffee beans, toasted white bread, and rubber bands.

The ideas of foreignness in Morales Urbina’s work are rooted in his Guatemala City birthplace and having lived across the US as a third culture kid (an individual raised in a culture other than their parents'). As much as he creates to engage audiences in such explorations, Urbina’s artmaking has also afforded him self-discovery; he creates art, “to build a home for myself; my art practice is my home.”

Morales Urbina’s achievements as an artist, are solo and group exhibitions in New York, New Jersey, and Texas, as well as being an alumnus of the renowned Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, in Maine. In 2023 he received the New Jersey State Council on the Arts - Sculpture Finalist Award. He also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at San Antonio, with a minor in Art History and Criticism. 

ART150 Gallery is located at 150 Bay Street in Jersey City, New Jersey. The entrance is on the corner of Provost & 1st. The gallery is wheelchair accessible. Hours: Saturdays and Sundays in April are from 1:00pm-4:00pm or by appointment 

Pro Arts Jersey City is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) professional visual arts membership organization dedicated to supporting and promoting artists and their work.  ART150 Gallery is made possible by the generous donation of GFP Real Estate. Our programming is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of the State, a partner agency for the National Endowment for the Arts and by Funds from the National Endowment for the arts, administered by the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.  Other support includes funding from the Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund, and the funding from the National Endowment for the Arts administered through the Jersey City Arts Council.