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Five Latinx Artists Explore Materiality, Identity, and Belonging in ‘Los Encuentros’
by Aurelia Butler 23 July 2025, 14:58
Facade mural by Ozzie Juarez. Photos by Alex Marks. All images courtesy of Ballroom Marfa, shared with permission
Five Latinx Artists Explore Materiality, Identity, and Belonging in ‘Los Encuentros’
July 23, 2025
ArtSocial Issues
Kate Mothes
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Marfa sits at the crossroads of US-90 and US-67 in the expansive Chihuahua Desert of far West Texas. About 60 miles from Mexico, U.S. Border Patrol trucks are a common sight along the roads, in addition to an unmissable, otherworldly tethered surveillance blimp that hovers near the highway between the town center and one of its most iconic installations, Elmgreen & Dragset’s “Prada Marfa.”
As the current administration’s immigration policy has taken effect, the politics of identity and geography have again been thrust front and center—often violently. In this remote borderland, where the one-stoplight-town has been redefined by influential art world personalities for several decades in an idiosyncratic convergence of ideas and lifestyles, there is a unique opportunity to engage with themes of community, narrative, socio-economic realities, and a sense of place.
Justin Favela
Ballroom Marfa’s summer exhibition, Los Encuentros, gathers the work of Latinx artists Justin Favela, Ozzie Juarez, Antonio Lechuga, Narsiso Martinez, and Yvette Mayorga. The gallery describes an aim of the show, the title of which translates to “the meetings” or “the gatherings,” as “the representation of Latinx culture to confront the accessibility of art spaces, colonial art histories, the conditions of labor, and lived experience.”
Amid daily news reports of ICE raids around the nation, the work in Los Encuentros is a timely and provocative exploration of today’s societal complexities along with being a way of “responding to the experiences of the people and places they engage with and depict,” a statement says.
All the artists employ a wide range of materials and techniques, from Mayorga’s frosting-like, piped paint to Favela’s vibrant ruffled paper installations redolent of piñatas. Lechuga uses Mexican blankets, or cobijas, creating sewn textile collages that explore a wide range of experiences and perspectives amid the current political climate.
Martinez continues to create intimate, candid portraits of farm workers by using produce boxes, bags, and repurposed plastic as his substrates as a reminder of the often invisible labor that goes into putting food on Americans’ tables. And Juarez has completely transformed Ballroom’s facade in to a giant painting derived from ancient Mesoamerican motifs.
Narsiso Martinez
Los Encuentros is curated by Texas-based Maggie Adler, who expressed delight at being able to collaborate “with artists whose practices center on allowing a broad range of community members to see themselves represented in art spaces.”
The show continues through October 12. Find more on the gallery’s website. And during open hours, keep an eye out for Rachel Hayes’ colorful patchwork flag that flies out front.
Ozzie Juarez
Narsiso Martinez
Justin Favela
Antonio Lechuga
Detail of a work by Antonio Lechuga
Yvette Mayorga
Detail of a work by Yvette Mayorga
Antonio Lechuga
Detail of a work by Antonio Lechuga
Narsiso Martinez
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Family, Memory, and an Ancestral Craft Converge in Daniela García Hamilton’s Tender Paintings
by Aurelia Butler 22 July 2025, 21:21
“La sala (The Living Room)” (2025), hand embroidery and oil on canvas (triptych), 27 x 60 inches. Photos by @ofphotostudio Yubo Dong. All images courtesy of the artist and Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, shared with permission
Family, Memory, and an Ancestral Craft Converge in Daniela García Hamilton’s Tender Paintings
July 22, 2025
ArtCraft
Kate Mothes
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Through a mixed-media approach combining oil paint with the soft definition of embroidery fiber, Daniela García Hamilton explores intergenerational bonds in tender, narrative canvases. A first-generation American from a Mexican family, the artist metaphorically links loved ones via thread, incorporating symbols of both Mexican and American geography and imagery of relatives drawn from photographs.
“García Hamilton investigates legacies of tradition, the inevitability of assimilation, and the ways in which family histories replay themselves over time,” says a statement from Charlie James Gallery, which is currently presenting the artist’s solo exhibition, Amanecer / Atardecer (Sunrise / Sunset).
“Toyota” (2025), hand embroidery and oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches
García Hamilton began incorporating embroidery into her work following the death of her grandfather, whose own experience with textiles and exuberance for storytelling deeply influenced the artist’s interest in the relationship between craft, lineage, and memory. Scenes range from memorable events like weddings to everyday moments in which people gather together at home or for a siesta in the back of a pickup truck.
Derived from photos in her family archive, García Hamilton’s figurative depictions are immanently relatable. Yet within the broader context of the U.S.’s socio-political climate, especially the current administration’s dubious approach to curbing immigration, there is an undeniable sense of precarity and protectiveness. We’re invited into nostalgic, tender, even vulnerable moments in which every individual’s personality radiates through what the gallery describes as an “inner glow,” emphasizing the significance of togetherness, resilience, and security.
Amanecer / Atardecer continues through August 2 in Los Angeles. Find more on the artist’s Instagram.
“El Temerario (The Daredevil)” (2024), hand embroidery and oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
Detail of “La sala (The Living Room)”
“High Noon” (2024), oil on canvas, 56 x 36 inches
“Sueña (Dream)” (2024), oil and Sharpie on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
“En el Jardín de mi abuelo (In My Grandfather’s Garden)” (2025), oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches
“Self-portrait as child with my Pa” (2024), colored ink on hot-pressed paper, 48 x 48 inches
“La boda de mi Tía Rosi (My Aunt Rosi’s Wedding)” (2025), hand embroidery on canvas, 30 x 36 inches
Detail of “La sala (The Living Room)”
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Anthony Dickenson’s ‘Mistake’ Transforms into a Unique Animation for a Rival Consoles Music Video
by Aurelia Butler 21 July 2025, 14:22
All images courtesy of Rival Consoles
Anthony Dickenson’s ‘Mistake’ Transforms into a Unique Animation for a Rival Consoles Music Video
July 21, 2025
AnimationArtFilmMusic
Kate Mothes
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For his latest single, “Soft Gradient Beckons,” British electronic musician Ryan Lee West, a.k.a. Rival Consoles, tapped multidisciplinary artist Anthony Dickenson to create a music video that plays with a sense of perception and reality—especially the distinction between analog and digital processes.
Dickenson employs a range of photography and film processes in his practice, focusing predominantly on nature and portraiture. For the “Soft Gradient Beckons” music video, he dove headlong into a nine-month experimental process, creating multiple, long paper scrolls with hand-painted frames in black ink. He then animated by documenting in a sequence akin to the way film is fed through a projector.
The video above features the complete music video, followed by a revealing making-of segment that delves into Dickenson’s labor-intensive process.
His installation “reflects the intricacies and dedication of the creative process,” the artist says in a statement. “The result is both a visual and emotional journey, seamlessly blending art and music into one cohesive experience.” Using cameras attached to a drone and a skateboard, he captures distinct details and patterns while also panning out to see the entire grouping arranged carefully on a warehouse floor.
The concept originated from what Dickenson calls a “mistake” that occurred when, a few years back, he was experimenting with making monoprints using ink rollers. He had a realization that little blemishes or so-called defects various textures from the roller actually lent themselves well to animation.
“Sometimes the mistakes are the bits that really reveal new techniques,” Dickenson says. “I love these little moments of imperfection. Otherwise, you know, you might as well just build in AI.” Find more on his website.
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Wang Mansheng Turns to Nature to Make His Own Paintbrushes from Organic Materials
by Aurelia Butler 17 July 2025, 19:11
All images courtesy of the artist and The Huntington
Wang Mansheng Turns to Nature to Make His Own Paintbrushes from Organic Materials
July 17, 2025
ArtCraftNature
Kate Mothes
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Have you ever sought out the best variety of paper, highest quality paints, or most-trusted brand of equipment only to find that a cheaper, more readily available version actually worked better? That’s something Chinese painter and calligrapher Wang Mansheng thinks about a lot. Making his own brushes from natural materials, the artist considers how organic imperfections are often ultimately more interesting than anything produced “perfectly” in a factory.
The artist’s solo exhibition at The Huntington, Without Us, envisions a world literally devoid of us, which he describes as a “pure land without humans, without pollution, without humans’ damage.” Comprising a series of 22 ink paintings on silk scrolls suspended from the ceiling, the body of work highlights the interconnectedness of all living things. Starting with the equipment he uses, nature remains central in his practice.
A short documentary produced by The Huntington delves into Wang’s process of creating his own brushes from scratch, utilizing stalks of grass and pieces of twine. “Manufactured things have a certain form,” the artist says. “Like a manufactured brush—they are all really fine. The factory is trying to make it as fine as they could. But when you use it, all the lines come out as smooth and beautiful. But sometimes, I think it’s too perfect.”
To bring out the character of old trees and dramatic cliffs in his paintings, Wang employs brushes that produce a rougher line or texture. In the film, he demonstrates how he transforms the soft, wide bristles of tall reeds into a tool suited to his needs. Through trial and error, he taught himself how to shape and use different sizes and densities to achieve a variety of effects. Overall, the texture mirrors age and exposure to the elements that shape how trees and rocks look over time.
Wang Mansheng: Without Us continues through August 5 in San Marino, California. Find more on the artist’s website. (via Kottke)
Installation view of Without Us at The Huntington
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From Vietnam to Nepal, Lee Me Kyeoung Expands the Geographic Bounds of Her Corner Store Drawings
by Aurelia Butler 11 July 2025, 18:47
Mirissa, Sriranka. All images courtesy of Lee Me Kyeoung, shared with permission
From Vietnam to Nepal, Lee Me Kyeoung Expands the Geographic Bounds of Her Corner Store Drawings
July 11, 2025
ArtIllustration
Grace Ebert
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Tucked into mountainsides and among bustling streets, small corner stores are often a central point in a community. For Lee Me Kyeoung (previously), these local shops provide endless inspiration for an ongoing series of drawings. The Korean artist documents the tiny markets she encounters around the world, utilizing pen and acrylic to create exquisite visual odes from Australia to Turkey.
Me Kyeoung’s drawings were recently collected into a book, and you can follow her work on Instagram.
Göreme Cappadocia, Türkiye
Husei, Japan
Dhampus, Nepal
Chefchaouen, Morocco
Hoian, Vietnam
Arhangai, Mongolia
Ubud Bali, Indonesia
Ross on Wye, U.K.
Sydney, Australia
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A New Book Illuminates Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Prolific Time in Los Angeles
by Aurelia Butler 11 July 2025, 15:46
All photos © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, courtesy of Gagosian, shared with permission
A New Book Illuminates Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Prolific Time in Los Angeles
July 11, 2025
ArtBooks
Grace Ebert
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Jean-Michel Basquiat (previously) is often associated with the New York art scene of the 1980s, but between November 1982 and May 1984, the artist was wildly prolific on the other side of the country.
During his first stay in California, Basquiat posted up at Larry Gagosian’s Market Street home in Venice after the two art world titans worked together on the artist’s West Coast debut. He returned to New York before another trip back to Market Street in summer of 1983, when he established his own studio. He remained there until the following spring.
Although brief, Basquiat’s time in Los Angeles was creatively fruitful. Throughout the year and a half period, he made approximately 100 paintings, as well as works on paper and six silkscreen editions in collaboration with publisher and curator Fred Hoffman.
This period produced works like “Hollywood Africans,” an acrylic and oil stick composition on bright yellow evocative of the Southern California sunshine. The mixed-media piece features a self-portrait of the artist alongside Toxic and Rammellzee, two fellow graffiti icons seen as the “new Black celebrities,” according to a statement.
This history is detailed in the forthcoming book Made on Market Street, published by Rizzoli and Gagosian this August. The book—which shares a title with a 2024 exhibition at the eponymous gallery—includes archival documents like reviews of the 1982 and 1983 exhibitions, press releases, invitations to opening receptions, and more. There are also photos of the artist in his studio published for the first time.
Viewed as a potential companion to the 500-page monograph of Basquiat’s work, Made on Market Street illuminates a lesser-known period of his life and creative practice. The book features conversations with and writings by Hoffman, Larry Gagosian, filmmaker Tamra Davis, and the artist’s sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, all of which offer unique insight into one of the most successful artists of his time. Pre-order your copy on Bookshop.
Detail of “Hollywood Africans” (1983)
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Raqib Shaw’s 100-Foot-Wide Autobiographical Painting Traces a Journey of Exile and Self-Discovery
by Aurelia Butler 8 July 2025, 16:33
Detail of “Paradise Lost” (2009–25). All images courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, shared with permission
Raqib Shaw’s 100-Foot-Wide Autobiographical Painting Traces a Journey of Exile and Self-Discovery
July 8, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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In 1999, Raqib Shaw began pulling at the threads of what would become an autobiographical painting of loss and beauty. He had recently fled his native Kashmir for New Delhi and later London, where he enrolled at Central Saint Martins. Political upheaval sparked his departure and sent him into permanent exile, a destabilizing event that left him longing for home and required a courageous act of self-reinvention.
As epic as the 17th-century poem that shares its name, “Paradise Lost” is the culmination of these experiences. Composed of 21 panels that stretch 100 feet wide, the monumental work traces four chapters of the artist’s life, from childhood to 2015. Although Shaw first began thinking about the painting in 1999, he didn’t begin working on it in earnest until 2009. Today, the allegorical piece is on view for the first time in its entirety at the Art Institute of Chicago.
“Paradise Lost” (2009–25)
In an essay about the work, Shaw describes metaphor as central to the painting’s narrative. “In Kashmir, metaphor is intrinsic to the way people speak and think,” he says. “Metaphor, rather than directness, conveys meaning with the greatest precision and depth.”
The painting begins on the left, with a seated figure howling at the moon. Set in the Karakoram mountain ranges of Shaw’s youth, the scene reflects the innocence, solitude, and inner calm the artist associates with his childhood. Moving right reveals a bird being freed from its cage, a figure tied up while surrounded by ferocious snakes, and finally, a small hut devoid of all luxuries. This robe-clad subject is a self-portrait of the artist with his beloved dog, although he points out that he considers the painting to be more universal, writing:
It is a story of the many paradises we inevitably lose as we move through life: the paradise of childhood, of innocence, of excitement and anticipation, of novelty. We lose the ease of belonging and the calm of that mental stillness that comes from lack of anxiety. And while these losses are deeply personal, they are surely universally felt. We all carry such losses as we move through life and construct inner worlds in response.
To create such dazzling scenes with immense precision, Shaw utilizes syringes and porcupine quills to apply enamel paints typically used by the auto industry. Acrylic liner on gesso creates “a golden line almost like the leading of a stained glass window,” and inlaid stones and other small materials add glittering depth.
While “Paradise Lost” deals with heavy themes of displacement and grief, Shaw shares that beauty is at its center. “Not beauty as ornament but as necessity. I believe deeply that art has the power to transform sorrow into meaning, and it has this wonderful quality to alchemize personal pain into something luminous and enduring,” he writes.
“Paradise Lost” is on view through January 19, 2026. Find more from Shaw on his website and Instagram.
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Magical Realism Permeates Christian Ruiz Berman’s Labyrinthine Paintings
by Aurelia Butler 7 July 2025, 20:33
“Tesseract” acrylic on panel, 11 x17 inches. All images courtesy of Christian Ruiz Berman, shared with permission
Magical Realism Permeates Christian Ruiz Berman’s Labyrinthine Paintings
July 7, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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“I grew up in the magical realist tradition, not only in terms of literature and painting but as a school of thought and culture,” Christian Ruiz Berman says. Endlessly interested in “the surreal nature of being stuck between two worlds,” the Mexican artist channels his experiences of immigration and adapting to new environments—including his current home in upstate New York—through his painting practice.
For Ruiz Berman, magical realism is a way to translate his realities into dense, surreal compositions that become a constellation of references and memories. His influences are broad, from Mexican muralist traditions and Latin American folk art to Taoism and Buddhism to poetry and Japanese printmaking, all of which converge in his work.
“God giving god to god” (2023), acrylic on panel, 30 x 40 inches
The resulting paintings become a place to encounter unexpected pairings and mystical associations free of hierarchies. Layering, in Ruiz Berman’s work, isn’t to privilege the objects and textures of the foreground but a manner of depicting the relationships between all elements.
“Ultimately, my work very much reflects the collision of Eastern and Latin American culture, art, (and) thought, as much as it does my personal amalgamation of Mexico and the U.S.,” he tells Colossal. “The existence of high intentionality and care, but also playfulness and strangeness, is something that has always made me feel connected to East Asian culture, and particularly to places like Japan and Tibet.”
Although Ruiz Berman offers many entry points to a single painting, his compositions provide an exacting path, however labyrinthine it might be. The eager raccoons in “God giving god to god” might catch the viewer’s eye first, for example, but they soon lead to the sleek lilies they offer up and the Mesoamerican stone statue that’s the object of their reverence. Another seated figure hovers to their left, against woodgrain, granite, and vibrant, swirling agate.
“Mixcoatl Merkaba” (2025), acrylic on panel, 16 x 20 inches
Combined with clean lines and exacting geometric shapes, this melange of symbols is undeniably eclectic and in service of a larger narrative. He shares:
I examine the notion that each person, animal, and object is not only an essential component of the present moment but an entangled element in a greater apparatus of constant change and adaptation…Magic and surprise always happen as a result of shared experience, cross-cultural inspiration, and the subversion of established tropes and identities. I paint because I am fascinated by the way it can draw from the endless diversity and inherent tension of life’s web.
Animals are often incorporated as “stewards of human culture,” the artist says. For example, Mesoamerican mythology tends to position jaguars as revered protectors able to move between worlds: those of the trees and water, day and night, and sites of the living and dead. Birds, too, are often seen as messengers and guides. Depicting these creatures not in their natural habitats but embedded in unusual compositions, Ruiz Berman seeks to recontextualize their meanings and expand the narratives each has come to symbolize.
If you’re in Miami, you can see some of Ruiz Berman’s work this summer at Mindy Solomon Gallery. Next spring, he will show at Art Basel Hong Kong with Proyectos Monclov and Harper’s Gallery in New York. Until then, head to his website and Instagram for more.
“Ursa Gevurah” (2025), acrylic on panel, 50 x 60 inches
“Grackles of grace” (2023), acrylic on panel, 18 x 24 inches
“Xacozelotl oz lat” (2025), acrylic on panel, 16 x 20 inches
“Life cycle” (2024), acrylic on panel, 24 x 36 inches
“Honeycreeper Harbingers” (2024), acrylic on panels, 15 x 11 inches
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More stories

Family, Memory, and an Ancestral Craft Converge in Daniela García Hamilton’s Tender Paintings

Anthony Dickenson’s ‘Mistake’ Transforms into a Unique Animation for a Rival Consoles Music Video

Wang Mansheng Turns to Nature to Make His Own Paintbrushes from Organic Materials

From Vietnam to Nepal, Lee Me Kyeoung Expands the Geographic Bounds of Her Corner Store Drawings

A New Book Illuminates Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Prolific Time in Los Angeles

Raqib Shaw’s 100-Foot-Wide Autobiographical Painting Traces a Journey of Exile and Self-Discovery

Magical Realism Permeates Christian Ruiz Berman’s Labyrinthine Paintings

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