SFC Art Gallery Presents “Dare, Denounce and Draw”
The SFC Art Gallery presents “Dare, Denounce and Draw,” featuring the work of Pedro X. Molina, an internationally renowned political cartoonist. Students are invited to attend both the opening as well as the walk-through with the artist on April 13 at 12:50 p.m., during Activity Hour.
Nicaraguan political cartoonist Pedro X. Molina is currently an Institute for International Education (IIE) Artist Protection Fund fellow and visiting critic in the Einaudi Center’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at Cornell University. Before that, Molina was a resident artist at the Ithaca City of Asylum and, from 2019 until 2021, a visiting scholar at Ithaca College.
In Nicaragua, Molina was a well-known political cartoonist whose work regularly skewered the government of President Daniel Ortega. He fled the country with his family in December 2018, when government forces raided and occupied the offices of his main outlet, Confidencial. Molina continues to produce cartoons for Confidencial. He also is a regular contributor to Counterpoint.com and has been published in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Courrier International (France) and other publications. His artwork has been exhibited internationally, and he has designed artwork for Amnesty International’s Banned Books Week.
In 2019, Molina received the Maria Moors Cabot Prize, awarded by Columbia Journalism School for “career excellence and coverage of the Western Hemisphere that furthers inter-American understanding.” The awards committee called him “one of Nicaragua’s sharpest observers” and wrote that “Molina uses his pen and wit to take aim not only at the repressive government of President Daniel Ortega, but also at human rights abuses throughout the Americas and the world.” The same year he was recognized by Americas Quarterly as one of its top 5 Latin American political humorists. His work has been recognized with the 2021 Gabo Award for Excellence, one of the most prestigious journalism prizes in Latin America. Molina is the first cartoonist to win the award, which is given by the foundation created by the late Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. The judges praised Molina for using humor to "challenge despotic rulers and even tyrannies” and said the award was meant to “publicly laud – before all citizens of the Americas – the social value of journalism that resists abuses of political power on our continent.”
Molina attended Polytechnic University of Nicaragua.