The exhibition features emerging Latinx artists Benjamin Lundberg Torres Sánchez, Elvia Carreon, Luis A. Sahagun, Rosalee Bernabe and Susan Flores-Melgar, whose works intimately analyze generational identity through a decolonial lens. 

Hilos is a response to the way craft is framed within Western institutions displaying Latin American, Indigenous and Caribbean Art. Historically these works are shown within a “primitive” lens of the past, and disregard the continuous ripples of colonization that have been woven into the fabric of Latinx identity and history. Craft in Latinx, Indigenous, and Caribbean histories has become an important “hilo” (thread) in connecting generational and ancestral knowledge, and a key vehicle in deconstructing and reconstructing contemporary Latinx identity. The artists of Hilos examine these threads that connect their relationships with craft materials, techniques, and traditions.

Each artist engages with different levels of intimacy and proximity to their own histories in their applications of craft. The scale and juxtaposition of small intricate paintings against ceramic frames in the works of Susan Flores-Melgar nod to the relationship within domestic and communal environments and reframe the gallery walls into a familiar home space. Similarly, the large scale of Eliva Carreon’s paintings investigate community through the use of portraits that display maternal connections within her own family. Her works integrate craft elements such as textiles, crochet and hair braiding to physically resemble womanhood through multiple generations. Portraiture is also utilized in the works of Rosalee Bernabe. Her use of leather and familial archival references and photographs turn familiar objects into narrative portraits of community and colonial history shared between the United States, Mexico and the Philippines. The works of Benjamin Lundberg Sánchez and Luis Sahagun examine physical and genetic relationships of body and colonialism within craft.  Sahagun used beading as a DNA like language to address “mestizaje” and Lundberg Sánchez crafts from their physical body, through performance with the inclusion of blood drawn by venipuncture, to reexamine the use and effect of blood quantum.  About LKGs Curator in Residence Program:

LatchKey Gallery’s Curator in Residence Program provides young curators the opportunity to work closely with the Gallery to curate, create, and organize a month-long summer exhibition in the gallery's space. The competitive program accepts two curators each year, and will provide a complete hands-on experience to learn the many facets of the gallery sector in the art business.

About Maya Ortiz Saucedo:
Maya Ortiz Saucedo (b. 1996 Chicago,IL) is a curator, researcher and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work engages in the subjects of Contemporary Latinx Art of the US, Latin America and Caribbean; Latinx Art and Artists of the Midwest and Decolonial Theory. She has written for The Latinx Poject at NYU’s publication Intervenxions (Adopting Performance: A Conversation with Benjamin Lundberg Torres Sánchez, 2020) and Digimyths (Notes on Navigating the Colonial Universe, 2021). She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018. She is currently a graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she is receiving her Dual Masters Degree in Art History and Arts Administration and Policy.

Hilos

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