Performance artist Nicolás Dumit Estévez presents two videos that focus on the plantain. In USA Paradisciaca, he takes on the role of a superhero chef who prepares foods that are associated with cultural identity and nurturing. Using the format of a cooking program, the gender-bending host’s instruction goes beyond recipes for preparing the plantain. La Fritura documents a performance, where dressed in surgical white, the artist offers an antiseptic version of a fritura, a typical Dominican street stand that usually sells sizzling animal entrails. Instead, he is demonstrates how to prepare a plaintain, peeling, slicing and frying up a tasty treat. In each of these videos, the artist acts as cultural ambassador with a zany sense of humor.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez pursues a number of different types of projects simultaneously. The Passeby Museum, an ongoing project in collaboration with Maria Alos, has been recreated in a number of settings including the IX Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba, Madrid Abierto, Madrid Spain, and Universidad Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico City. For Art’s Sake, developed for Franklin Furnace, is a series of public art performance or pilgrimages that he conducted in collaboration with El Museo del Barrio, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Jersey City Museum, and Longwood Arts Project. His work has been exhibited widely including The Newark Museum, Newark NJ; Longwood Art Project at Hostos Community College, Bronx, NY; and Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Masterdon New Zealand He has participated in residencies at MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Emerge 7 at Aljira, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Program. He earned a BA in Studio Art from City College/CUNY, New York, NY, and a MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.  www.longwoodarts.org/Artists/nicolas