An heirloom is greater than an object; it’s a narrative handed from one technology to the following. At Ruiz-Healy Artwork, the exhibition, Heirloom, delves into the quiet energy of on a regular basis issues to hold, reconstruct, and honor reminiscence. The featured artists draw from private archives that always level to each intimate household histories and broader cultural environments. Curators Sarah Beauchamp and Yadira Silva chosen works from the gallery’s in depth assortment that discover how cultural artifacts, gestures, and moments change into embedded in visible language.
Richard ‘Ricky’ Armendariz, “Your Wild Backyard is The place I Select to Stay,” 2020, oil on carved birch panel, 48 x 48 inches. Courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Artwork, San Antonio | New York Metropolis
Richard ‘Ricky’ Armendariz references a number of cultures in Your Wild Backyard is The place I Select to Stay. The artist carves a wealthy composition of philodendrons and lilies rising from a vase with trout handles. Reference to the Moche of Peru is made via the choice to include animals on the vase. The quote etched into the vessel reads, “your wild backyard is the place i stay mas y mas y mas.” Armendariz pulls this quote from his lived expertise, as he was raised in a bilingual family in El Paso. The slang-like phrase, with little regard to standard grammatical norms, references the concept of transferring forwards and backwards from English to Spanish as one speaks or thinks, which is a standard incidence in communities alongside the U.S.-Mexico border.
Black witch moths are native to Texas, and Armendariz scatters them all through the paintings. Concerning using animals in his work, Armendariz explains that the inspiration comes from numerous historic European empires. Armendariz notes that animals have “been utilized in Basic, Romantic, Grecian, and Roman artwork.” He provides, “I’m interested in this concept that the deities, the gods, had been consistently turning themselves into animals to attach with human beings.” The juxtaposition between the moths and trout reveals how Armendariz places his spin on Greco-Roman gods, merging these cultural beliefs with animals that thrive on the borderlands. This portray pulls from a number of cultures, together with Armendariz’s cultural heritage.
Ethel Shipton, “Qué,” 2014, version 5 / 10, screenprint on Canson Basic Cream 90lb paper, 18 x 12 inches. Courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Artwork, San Antonio | New York Metropolis
Like Armendariz, Ethel Shipton additionally merges English and Spanish phrases to create Spanglish vocabulary that’s acquainted to the area, and will resonate extra broadly to bilingual people of any tradition. Initially from Laredo, Shipton’s American and border identities deeply impression her work. She proclaims that “being in that in-between area means that you can transfer with some fluidity between two cultures, two languages, [and] two worlds.” Qué conveys widespread vernacular expressions, akin to “Qué Wow” and “Qué Great,” which are humorous in nature. That is the kind of vocabulary that comes about amongst conversations with household and associates.
Jennifer Ling Datchuk, “LUCKY,” 2021, porcelain and gilded silver on wood desk with mirrored plexiglass, 1.5 x 22 x 4 inches (sculpture), 24 x 50.5 x 13.5 inches (desk). Courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Artwork, San Antonio | New York Metropolis
Jennifer Ling Datchuk’s LUCKY sculpture additionally references features of her upbringing. Datchuk magnifies the scale of a daring, gilded silver bracelet with hearts on either side of the phrase “LUCKY.” The bracelet sits stretched out on a desk that can be gilded silver. In Chinese language tradition, it’s customized for elders to present gold jewellery to ladies, particularly on monumental days, such because the Lunar New Yr or weddings. When Datchuk was an adolescent, her grandmother gifted her a LUCKY bracelet. This sculpture not solely facilities that second of giving, but additionally memorializes Datchuk’s grandmother.
In a one-on-one dialogue with the artist, she defined that “adornment is a alternative and might empower and luxury a wearer… By rendering this bracelet on a bigger scale, I convey the load of conventional cultural symbols and the way it can present hope throughout unsure instances.” Bracelets are usually small, however an heirloom like this, particularly when given by a cherished one, has a that means that transcends its dimension.
Chuck Ramirez, “Abuela’s Kitchen,” 1996, digital prints, version of 6 plus 2 artist’s proofs (#2/6), 8 x 10 inches (every print) . Courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Artwork, San Antonio | New York Metropolis
Chuck Ramirez additionally reminds viewers of the ability of a caring grandmother via Abuela’s Kitchen. On the opening evening of the exhibition, gallery director Patricia Ruiz-Healy shared with me that this paintings has sat within the gallery’s archive for quite a few years. She credited the curators for taking the time to revisit works in storage, fastidiously contemplating how every one may resonate inside the bigger narrative of the present. On this case, displaying Abuela’s Kitchen not solely aligned with the exhibition’s theme, but additionally honored Ramirez himself, who died in 2010.
Ramirez captured these images from the middle of his grandmother’s kitchen. He framed and displayed the sequence in sequential order on painted cabinets. The candid photographs showcase on a regular basis scenes in Ramirez’s grandmother’s house, which can be acquainted to different Mexican American households. A illustration of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Final Supper hangs on the kitchen wall, as if to guard the household whereas they eat. Pans relaxation on the oven, whereas Ramirez’s grandmother stars in a number of of the photographs, tending to different sides of the kitchen.
The tales skilled and represented by the artists are concurrently native and worldwide. The works on view make one take into account heirlooms in their very own lives, whether or not they’re inherited by household, or moments from youth that keep in our hearts to recollect the folks that we love essentially the most.
Heirloom is on view at Ruiz-Healy Artwork in San Antonio via August 9, 2025.
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