Elsa Núñez honored at 31st National Biennial of Visual Arts in Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo.- The front esplanade of the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Plaza de la Cultura Juan Pablo Duarte hosted the opening of the 31st National Biennial of Visual Arts 2025 on Saturday, August 30. The event, led by Culture Minister Roberto Ángel Salcedo, honored Elsa Núñez, a leading figure in contemporary Dominican art.

During the ceremony, Minister Salcedo, accompanied by Deputy Minister Amaury Sánchez and the organizing committee, presented Núñez with a plaque recognizing her more than six decades of socially committed and aesthetically sensitive work. Salcedo highlighted the Biennial’s role in showcasing Dominican art and announced plans to create a permanent committee to ensure the Biennial’s stability, as well as increased prizes for the 2027 edition.

Maestro Núñez expressed her gratitude, describing art as “a form of resistance, of naming what hurts, what burns,” and reflecting on her work as a dialogue with the country’s beauty and struggles.

The Biennial’s jury, led by Raúl Morilla alongside Lillian Carrasco and Hiromi Shiba, emphasized the selection’s focus on formal and conceptual excellence and the works’ engagement with contemporary issues. The Grand Prize of one million pesos was awarded to Lucía Méndez Rivas for Healing Ritual. Nine additional prizes of RD$300,000 and two honorable mentions were also awarded, recognizing works including David Pérez’s What is Pulled Out by the Roots Grows Back, Fued Yamil Koussa’s Alain, Jessica Fairxax Hirst’s Abstinence Kit, José Levi’s Apocalyptic Mambo (The Tardigrade’s Merengue), José Morbán’s Feria 2025, the Modafoca collective’s The Reader, Pedro Troncoso’s Roots Without Seeds, Soraya Abu Nabaá’s Palo Vivo: Between Roots and Memories, and Yéssica Montero’s The Dragonfly’s Dream. Mentions went to Noa Balle’s Pending: performative studies on kinetic normativity and Ramón Pacheco’s The Annunciation.

Out of 609 submitted works, 210 were selected by the specialized jury. Since 1942, the Biennial, organized by the Ministry of Culture, has served as the country’s premier platform for exhibiting, reflecting on, and promoting visual arts, reaffirming its commitment to celebrating national identity, preserving memory, and shaping the future of Dominican art.