Borikén/Puerto Rican artists’ work on view
Seattle, WA – Welcome to Paradise: ¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre! by Seattle-based Boricua artist, Jo Cosme, opens at ARTS at King Street Station on Nov. 6. This project began in 2018 after Hurricane María, when Cosme was displaced from Borikén/Puerto Rico and realized how little most North Americans understood about the island’s colonial reality.
“Welcome to Paradise is not simply an art exhibition—it is a confrontation,” says Jo Cosme. “The work dismantles the postcard image of Puerto Rico as a tropical escape and reveals what lies beneath: five centuries of colonization, ongoing U.S. control, and the exploitative force of disaster capitalism that turns survival into business.”
For the first time, this exhibition expands beyond Cosme’s individual practice to include over 30 artists directly from Borikén. Welcome to Paradise challenges audiences, especially those from the Global North, to face the contradictions of vacationing in a colonized land.
“This body of work twists the very tools of tourism and advertising against themselves,” says Cosme. “Compelling audiences to sit with the consequences of their own gaze and complicity.”
Welcome to Paradise: ¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre! is on view Nov. 6, 2025 – Jan. 10, 2026. ARTS at King Street Station is open Wednesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., and until 8 p.m. on First Thursdays. It’s located at 303 S. Jackson Street, on the Top Floor of King Street Station, Seattle, WA 98104. Admission is FREE.
Join us for the opening reception on First Thursday, Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. featuring a live Bomba performance by Otoqui Reyes and interactive activations by Shey Rivera.
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About ARTS at King Street Station
ARTS at King Street Station is a dynamic space for arts and culture in the heart of the city dedicated to increasing opportunities for people of color to generate and present their work. Housed above Seattle’s historic King Street Station, this 7,500-square-foot gallery and cultural space includes a studio for artists-in-residence and offices for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.
Exhibitions and programs come to the gallery through an open application and are selected by a cohort of King Street Station Advisors. These advisors are a group of community leaders and arts/culture enthusiasts who work with our staff to ensure that the programming at ARTS at King Street Station centers racial equity, represents and welcomes diverse communities, and showcases many creative disciplines. Advisors serve a two-year term.
About the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
Formed in 1971 with a mission to activate and sustain Seattle through arts and culture, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (OAC) manages the City’s public art program, cultural partnerships grant programs, The Creative Advantage arts education initiative, and cultural facilities such as the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, ARTS at King Street Station, and ARTS at Denny Substation.
In alignment with the City’s Race and Social Justice Initiative, OAC seeks new solutions that use arts as a strategy to drive not only the office, but the City as a whole toward racial equity and social justice. OAC will continue to break barriers and build arts-integrated tools that challenge the status quo and push us toward the inclusive society we envision.
OAC is supported by the 16-member Seattle Arts Commission, citizen volunteers appointed by the Mayor and City Council.
