Opening: Vicente Telles: Cobijas de Mis Madres

Cobijas de Mis Madres
opening: Friday, November 3, from 5-7 pm
on view: November 3–27

New Mexico-born artist Vicente Telles’ work opens dialogs about the complexities of contemporary New Mexican identities. He paints retablos that reinterpret traditional Catholic and cultural iconography, and experiments with media including textiles, high quality papers and found and repurposed materials.

Telles’ series of “anonymous self-portraits” for his upcoming show at Hecho Gallery depict him with a series of different vintage pinto bean sacks covering his head, and quilts wrapped around his shoulders that his grandmothers made “years and years ago.”

While this show revisits motifs and themes Telles has explored before, it’s more complex and on a larger scale. It “rounds out a story of the idea of being a Nuevo Mexicano or a Latino in this part of the country,” Telles says.

As his art has evolved, he’s begun to feel more comfortable “telling these stories that may seem insignificant, but in the grand scheme everybody can relate to.”

“I think it’s feeling more comfort in my ability to put it down and paint like I view it,” he says. “It’s something to make people think that we’re all human.”