CANDE AGUILAR barrioPOP
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
RIC MICHEL FINE ART PRESENT:
CANDE AGUILAR barrioPOP
SEPTEMBER 5 - SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 81 LEONARD STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10013
What is barrioPOP? An amalgam of street art and pop culture filtered through a distinctly south Texas, Mexican-American lens. Hand painted signs, Conjunto music, cartoon icons, museum masters and border politics all find their way into the mix. And emerge reconfigured in something new, fresh, and provocative.
Cande Aguilar in the Studio, Brownsville, Texas 4
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Land of Peace is a bittersweet rumination on how things used to be among the Rio Grande border towns. In the Artist’s youth–idealized by the Christopher Robin image and smiling stick figure -people moved freely across the border embracing an extended community. Frozen Menudo…a tasty treat…harkens back to those sweet times as do the Peter Max style butterflies and bucolic Van Gogh landscape. The poignant references are more subtle: a rapier tear drop, “dual” text (signifying the duality/conflicting identities of theMexican-American community), and Van Gogh himself… as misunderstood in his time as the Immigrant is today.
Land of Peace | Multimedia painting with found object on panels, 96"x192" 6
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“Conjunto music was my door into the Arts. To me, the accordion symbolizes the sounds of the barrio. Growing up, I could pass by any house in the neighborhood and hear accordion music in the backyard.�
Chanito | Multimedia painting with transfers and found object on panel, 81"x96.5" 8
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“Barrio culture has always been rich with humor and I try to incorporate that into my work. Sometimes, its about the characters but most often it comes from the Juxtaposition. I like to mix things up to generate different associations and reactions.�
Encuentro with an Angel | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 24"x48" 10
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Madre y Mickey | Multimedia painting with transfers on panels, 33"x28" 12
NY Dream | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 20"x24"
Vincent’s Stage | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 12"x16" 13
“For every image that springs from the Imagination, others are just a day in the life…. what I see around me. A bowl of fruit, a gnarled tree trunk, the morning paper…”
Naranjas Chief | Multimedia painting with transfers on panels, 33"x28"
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Painted Tronco | Paint and found object assemblage, 22.5"x17"x13.5"
Find Love in the Stars Version 2 | Multimedia painting with transfers and metallic sticker on panel, 18"x14" 15
“Hand made signs are everywhere in the barrio. For every letter perfect McDonalds there are ten hand crafted beauties. I view the signs as original art and the sign makers as fellow artists. Ultimately, we are all mark makers trying our best to communicate.�
Pedaso de Ayer | Multimedia painting with transfers & found object on panel, 48"x72" 16
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Yellow Table | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 36"x48" 18
La Chicanita | Oil and acrylic on found panel, 22"x28"
Calle de Cumbia | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 23.5"x65" 19
“Appropriation is one of many tools I use in my work…. though I view it more as homage. Whether a Matisse bust or Picasso torso, inspiration abounds. On a good day in the studio, the Rive Gauche meets the Rio Grande.”
Portrait | Multimedia painting on canvas with found frame, 55"x41" 20
Meant to Be | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 24"x36"
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“The street is the pulse of everything barrio…it is a living, breathing canvas.”
Sidewalk Blues | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 48"x72" 22
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Avenida Limboville | Multimedia painting with transfers and sticker on panel 24"x28" 24
Looking for Tweety | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 24"x33" 25
“Abandoned billboards are our urban archeology‌ sediments and stories layered over time. Stripped and distressed, the narratives morph into abstractions.â€?
Spring Within | Multimedia painting with transfers on panels, 16"x18" 26
Park Bench | Multimedia painting on panels, 36"x44"
Spring Within 2 | Multimedia painting with transfers on panels, 16"x17" 27
Dirty South | Multimedia painting with found object on panels, 96"x102" 28
Matasville | Multimedia painting with found object on panels, 52"x55" 29
“I’ve been wondering for some time about the promise of America. Things seem to be slipping away…melting.”
Capitol | Multimedia painting on paper, 49"x40" 30
La Capitol | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 24"x18" 31
“As walls dominate the conversation, bridges seem forgotten and the human connection fails. The ‘other’ becomes an abstraction…something different, someone less.”
El Puente Nuevo | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 48"x72" 32
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The Immigrant speaks to the hardship of the Immigrant experience. The battered, old TV is plugged in but plays only static… the immigrant’s struggle to connect, communicate and realize his vision of the American Dream. The figure…slouched, legs only, one shoe, torn pants… symbolizes the arduousness of the Journey while the ornate gold throne embodies the Land of Plenty. This Star is no heavenly body to be wished upon… scuffed and fallen it heralds only the hard road ahead.
The Immigrant | Found object assemblage, approx. 4'x 6'x 4' 34
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La Lucha (the Struggle) asks: When illusions of Safety and Sanctuary vanish, what do “The Dreamers” dream? Van Gogh’s bed—itself a repository of tortured nightmares —barricades one door but the Interior (physically and psychologically) is breached. Though cast as luchadors...Mexican wrestlers... there is nothing staged or comic about these intruders. Masked and menacing, they tower over the cowering family.
La Lucha | Multimedia painting with transfers on panel, 60"x76" 36
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“Game Over is about a reckoning….a hope that today’s ugly rhetoric and divisiveness will soon come to an end. Back seat romance….“the last kiss”…is by its very nature ephemeral. So too, I hope, is the current Administration. The familiar yellow hair sits atop a roll of pink toilet paper…. unspooling to its inevitable conclusion.”
Game Over | Multimedia painting with transfers on panels, 73"x70" 38
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With four solo museum exhibitions in 2019: at San Antonio’s McNay Museum, the San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum, the University of Texas, Rusteberg Gallery, and the Underwood Center for the Arts in Lubbock, TX (coming in October), Cande Aguilar is gaining great acclaim as a distinctive and authentic voice of the Mexican-American experience.
Cande Aguilar: barrioPOP Installation detail at McNay Museum, San Antonio November 15, 2018 – March 17, 2019 (extended through May 5th) 40
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Cande Aguilar: barrioPOP at San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum, San Benito, TX | Dec 20, 2018 – Feb. 8, 2019 42
Cande Aguilar: barrioPOP at San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum, San Benito, TX (Installation Detail) 43
Cande Aguilar Biography Born: Brownsville, TX, 1972 SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: McNay Museum, San Antonio, TX San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA International Museum of Arts & Science, McAllen, TX Brownsville Museum of Art, Brownsville, TX San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum, San Benitio, TX Gertrude Herbert Institute for Art, Augusta, GA The Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA Wichita Falls Museum of Art, Wichita Falls, TX University of Texas, Rusteberg Gallery, Brownsville, TX The Office of Useless Art, Tamines, Belgium Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX Studio Apothiki, Paphos, Cyprus Progresso Art Gallery, Tamaulipas, Mexico Funky Town, Berkeley, CA The Painting Center, NYC Wave Pool Gallery, Cincinatti, OH Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX Texas Biennial, Austin, TX Young Space, Kaukauna, WI Boecker Contemporary, Heidelberg, Germany SELECTED COLLECTIONS Cheech Marin Center of Chicano Art, Riverside CA International Museum of Arts & Science, McAllen TX Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, Brownsville, TX Wichita Falls Museum of Art, Wichita Falls, TX UTSA Art Collection, San Antonio, TX First National Bank, Edinburg, TX Mountain View College, Dallas TX Harper College, Palatine, IL Cande Aguilar: barrioPOP/Capirotada, University of Texas, Rusteberg Gallery, Brownsville, TX | Jan 22, 2019 - Feb 15, 2019 44
Chanito | Multimedia painting with transfers and found object on panel, 81"x96.5"