Museum hosts exhibition based on 1982 collaborative art sculpture

El Museo del Barrio in Harlem, New York, is hosting an exhibition called Octopus and Others to showcase the connection between text and imagery.

The exhibition features seven plywood panels from a book-shaped sculpture that Puerto Rican artist Papo Colo installed in the museum courtyard in 1982. This original work was commissioned for the Art in the Park program by David Hammons.

The sculpture unfolded like an accordion across several panels that nearly 40 invited New York artists and poets co-authored together. The current show explores how these collaborations created a collective experience from individual poetic voices. One panel features a direct message from Colo about the fusion of English, Spanish, and Spanglish. The exhibition looks back at these experimental production scenes from the 1980s to the present day to show how different generations and languages interact through art.