Baptism (Catechumen), by Ernesto Pujol

Ernesto Pujol was born in Cuba, grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and has lived and worked in New York City since 1983. Pujol is a site-specific performance artist, social choreographer, and educator with an interdisciplinary practice. His work in painting, prints, installations, and photography explores concepts of exile, memory, freedom, and gender. "Baptism (Catechumen)" is a diptych of two images presented as a single photographic print, in which Pujol captures a spiritual moment when a figure disappears into the water. Pujol received his BA in humanities and painting from the Universidad de Puerto Rico and his MFA in interdisciplinary art practice from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Pujol has received fellowships from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation/NEA Regional Fellowships and grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Pujol participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence program in January 1999.