Carlos Rosales-Silva: Sunland Park I Ruiz-Healy Art

Using landscape and architecture as a foundation, the works of Sunland Park reflect a process of change that expresses artistic and cultural histories beyond the confines of language. As the artist states, “There's a consistent influence of the landscape and architecture and artists that I grew up with along the border of Texas, Mexico, and El Paso. I'm constantly looking back at the landscape, looking back at the architecture.” Starting with a concrete source of inspiration such as Mexican stucco construction or hand-painted, plexiglass signs, the work becomes abstracted as the artist moves further away from the source. It is then recalled by color, texture, and line to form an object endowed with layers of significance. The artist shares, “I find abstraction to be a useful tool for navigating the tense states that Brownness often finds itself in, states where we attempt to preserve cultural tradition while assimilating for survival purposes, states where home is experienced in fleeting moments and memory.” The artist’s works consider the histories of vernacular cultures of the American Southwest, the western canon of art history, and the political and cultural connections and disparities between them.