Conjunto is a Spanish phrase that interprets actually to “conjunct” or “joined collectively” and refers to a musical style indigenous to South Texas. It’s a music that holds the capability for varied qualities similar to tenderness, celebration, and even social commentary, usually complexly weaving collectively a number of of those right into a single piece. In a brand new exhibition of artworks by Cande Aguilar and Josuè Rawmírez at La Tijera in Brownsville, conjunto is a phrase that resonates each sonically and visually all through.
Cande Aguilar is a Brownsville native who has exhibited internationally at galleries and museums in Texas, New York, New Mexico, California, Mexico, and France. I first encountered his work in Soy de Tejas, a 2023 exhibition that traveled to San Antonio and Fort Price. Aguilar’s piece within the present, Previous the Shock, is a powerful 20-foot portray unfold throughout 5 panels. I distinctly bear in mind being bowled over when the wall label revealed that the artist was a Brownsville native. It’s a way of shock that’s not misplaced on Aguilar, with the artist stating in a 2020 Texas Observer function highlighting his latest New York gallery solo present, “The infrastructure, it’s simply not right here… So far as I do know, no person’s ever really had a solo present in New York, being from right here and understanding of [Brownsville].”
Cande Aguilar, “Previous the Shock,” 2008, multimedia portray on panels. Picture: grayDUCK Gallery
Aguilar’s work at La Tijera largely consists of hand-painted recreations of fashionable signage that may be discovered all through the Rio Grande Valley, promoting meals, music, and different companies. One exception to this may be present in a triptych through which the highest panel accommodates the phrase “Assange,” in seemingly grateful reference to the Australian Wikileaks founder, whereas the remaining panels spell out the phrase “Assange Tremendous Gracias.”
Set up view of “Cande Aguilar and Josuè Rawmírez” at La Tijera. Picture: Michael Flanagan
Additionally current within the aforementioned Soy de Tejas exhibition, Josuè Rawmírez was born in Ciudad Mante, Mexico, and presently lives and works within the Rio Grande Valley. Along with his work as an artist, Rawmírez is a journalist and co-founder of Trucha, a web based platform and cultural collective. Rawmírez ’s background as a journalist is a helpful context when contemplating his handmade paper assemblages. Studying like a deconstructed piñata, the work peels again the layers of those utilitarian sculptures which can be generally used for celebrations in Mexico. Typically manufactured from papier-mâché, this aspect of the paintings’s development highlights newspaper headlines similar to “Unfair: Present redistricting clearly discriminatory” and “Pipeline firm evades questions on reporting oil spill.”
Josuè Rawmírez, “Piñata Paper Archive,” 2021 [detail]. Picture: Michael Flanagan
In distinction to the vital nature of those assemblages, Rawmírez ’s sculptures show a sure sense of freedom and pleasure that stems from the abstracted shapes of what are primarily mutated piñatas. These are brilliant and exquisite artworks that concurrently appear to have fun and problem conventional cultural narratives.
“Cande Aguilar and Josuè Rawmírez” at La Tijera. Picture: Michael Flanagan
There’s a snug dialogue that exists between the 2 artists’ work on this present, although there’s additionally a 3rd voice collaborating within the dialog — that of the area itself. Raised in New York Metropolis, gallery proprietor Mariana Smith, who’s herself an artist with Brownsville roots and artwork world connections (her father is the acclaimed artist Ray Smith), spent 3 years restoring and studying in regards to the historical past of the area that homes La Tijera earlier than opening to the general public in 2024. Through the restoration course of, it was found that the constructing was initially a part of Brownsville’s Nineteenth-century metropolis corridor, a discovery that guided Smith in her design of the area. Greater than 100 years of historical past are seen, from the present-day restorations to the unique brickwork that’s uncovered all through. There’s a sure timelessness to Aguilar’s and Rawmírez ’s works that speaks to the shapes and colours of the varied layers of uncovered supplies on the gallery’s partitions.
Josuè Rawmírez, “Piñata Stalagmite” Picture: Michael Flanagan
At a recent opening event, Aguilar performed the accordion whereas Rawmírez danced in a sculptural costume of his personal design, shedding remnants that new guests will proceed to seek out unfold across the gallery flooring. All of it comes off as a monumental celebration of the resilient spirit of Mexican American tradition that has been a cornerstone of Brownsville and the previous cultures which have inhabited its area for a whole lot of years. Maybe it additionally suggests a burgeoning infrastructure that may assist a seamless crop of younger artists who make their mark all through Texas, New York, and past.
Cande Aguilar x Rawmírez is on view via March twenty ninth at La Tijera. Observe La Tijera on social media for extra info.
