lauren cardenás:

borderlandia - no home for you here

Oct 1 - 31, 2024

FIRST WEDNESDAY OPENING: Oct 2 FROM 6 - 9PM

ARTICULATE ARTIST TALK: SUNDAY, Oct 20, AT 4PM.

NORMAL GALLERY HOURS: TUE - SUN, 12PM - 6PM

FOLLOW US AT BRGALLERY FOR UPDATES AND IMAGES!

Lauren is interested in objects that often go unnoticed and yet are interacted with on a regular basis. Things like sheets, cheese slices, or a toner printer. She’s interested in the relationships that people have with the mundane things that fill our lives, and how that context is altered when they’re pulled from the expected habitats and contexts. Using a mix of traditional and experimental printmaking techniques she is able to add a layer of history and intrigue to the items.

This work explores loss and conflict by examining one’s hybrid identity – especially that of Latin Americans and how they have become defined by U.S. borders. In the politically divided, nationalist, and insular U. S., many blame the country’s problems on minorities. The Border wall has become a tenuous space fraught with deprivation and demise. This work directly explores the current events presently taking place along the U.S./Mexico border; within the work, I focus on the Texas/Mexico border because of my home ties to the area. I once called Texas home, but now have reluctance because of its treatment of migrants crossing the border to seek asylum.

Cardenás is currently an Assistant Professor of Printmaking at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. She has earned her MFA in Visual Art, with a concentration in Print Media and Book Arts from Washington University Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art in St. Louis. She has also earned her Printer Training Program Certificate from the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This exhibition is on view alongside works from three of our other artist members: Jeremiah Ariaz, Justin Tyler Bryant, and Kristine Thompson. All works from these artists are on view, free of charge, during regular gallery hours (12 - 6 p.m., Tue - Sun) from Oct 1 - 31, 2024.