Cleveland Latinx Sculptors Tour

Like the “Culture & Beyond: African American Sculptors Tour”, The Cleveland Latinx Sculptors Tour highlights minority sculptors important to the history of Cleveland. The artists in this tour have each created important monumental Cleveland sculptures that most Clevelanders have seen on a day to day basis. This not only makes the pieces well known but familiar and one with the city.

Cleveland has grown to be an important arts city. Everyday artists and Cleveland residents are made proud by the support and progression we have in the city. Sculpture has become an important part of our history such as in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens and within the works of the David E. Davis Studio. Sculptures are seen in many Cleveland neighborhoods including Euclid, Downtown, University Circle and Woodland Hills.

Each artist in this tour identifies as latinx ( Cuban, Puerto Rican, Mexican etc), and has contributed greatly to the collective arts success of Cleveland.

Hector Vega is a Puerto Rican artist known for his whimsical brightly colored sculptures at the Ronald McDonald House on Euclid Ave and his sculptures for Rainbows Babies & Children’s Hospital. Vega has also sculpted a steel “Apple Tree” in Woodland Hills, a large guitar for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and heart-shaped tulips for Metro Hospital. Among these Vega has also created interior sculptures, wine bottles, drawings and paintings. He is currently working on the fountain sculpture.

Artist Angelica Pozo, a Cuban and Puerto Rican female artist is notably known for her ceramic works including mosaic, sculpture and other public works. Pozo is also an author who has written books on ceramics. In Cleveland we have Pozo’s wonderful “Marketplace/Meetingplace : An Urban Memorial" which is located downtown, as well as the “Stephanie Tubbs Jones Memorial Wall” in University Circle. Pozo has made many wonderful contributions to Cleveland's public arts as well as community arts projects.

Luis Jimenez was a Mexican American sculptor from Texas who began making monumental sculptures in the midst of the Latino civil rights movement. He “dedicated himself to contemporary subjects that represented a racially diverse and working class America”, such as in his Cleveland sculpture the “Cleveland Firefighter Memorial”, which was his last piece before his death in 2006.