My interdisciplinary art practice interrogates the long history of displacement in the Americas, starting with Indigenous dispossession and genocide to current issues around gentrification, evictions, and homelessness. At its root, however, it is a critical reflection on the commodification of land as private property and the issues that arise out of this. I articulate these subjects through printmaking, installation, and sculpture, to outline the contested use of space and the ways that social and political policies have shaped our contemporary urban environment. I am particularly interested in creating work that exists in the intersections between theory and praxis, articulating a visual form of knowledge production.
As a maker, I am not solely interested in the creation of objects as commodities, though I will engage with this economy strategically. Nor am I invested in elitist notions of ‘high art’ or purely formal pursuits. I am more interested in understanding the ways that visual art can elicit a panoply of emotions and intellectual reactions that get us to think about the world and our place in it. Sometimes this means mobilizing the language of so-called ‘high’ or ‘fine’ art, but other times I will engage with more vernacular forms. This is because I want to speak to several audiences, not only those with advanced degrees and access to specialized language.
As a printmaker at heart, moreover, I respect the rich history of the media and approaches that fall under the large umbrella of printmaking. I have a deep respect for this history, and the labor that goes into a form of art that is often derided as ‘craft,’ and generally excluded from contemporary art discourses. For me, my engagement with printmaking stems from my love of relief printing and its radical history, but I am not interested in limiting myself to being ‘only’ a printmaker. I consider myself a multi-disciplinary research artist that mobilizes the visual language of printmaking in strategic ways. It is because I believe in its potential that I want add another branch onto the vibrant tree we call printmaking.
I am originally from the working-class migrant community of East Salinas, in California’s Central Coast, where I grew up until I graduated from high school. I come from three generations of migrant farm workers, and my upbringing in this community informs my work as a Xicanx artist, researcher, and advocate in substantive ways. I am currently based in Los Angeles, CA, where I have lived and worked since 2008.
