Valentine From Borderlandia
Opening Reception | Tuesday, September 24, 2019 | 11:00 am | Brazos Hall
In summer 2019, the Center for the Study of the Southwest commissioned Andrea Muñoz Martinez to exhibit her work on the landscapes of the Uvalde – Piedras Negras region. Muñoz Martinez starts small to capture these vast views. She uses one brush per canvas to paint tiny individual squares. Together, these small splashes of paint on eight-foot by twelve-foot canvases merge to become images of South Texas landscapes. Each square mirrors the splash of light the receptors respond to when we see; Andrea Munoz Martinez seeks to catch the moment when landscapes become part of our bodies, or our bodies begin their response to our landscapes. Her paintings mirror the memories we carry with us of the landscapes of our home; her work, the labor it takes to share experiences and feelings with others.
The photographer, Joe Martinez, focuses on the intimate relationships that connect his work outside to the flora and fauna in people’s homes. His work brings out a closeness to animals fostered by a life working outside. Together, their works speak to the physical and cultural ecology of the Southwest.
“These paintings are inspired by the vast landscape of Uvalde, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico. This show is an invitation to contemplate the beauty that exists in a land where people negotiate their place, where people thrive and struggle, and where people resist the idea of unjust borders.
Painting landscapes is a way for me to understand the place where I am from. I grew up fishing and hunting with my father who taught me how to look at the landscape. My mother filled our home with textiles that created a soothing environment which helped me thrive in a sometimes hostile town. This show hopes to create a contemplative space for people to study the borderlands and to reflect on the urgent needs of people living there.
These landscape paintings are abstract. Abstract painting can be a way of observing the hope and horror of the borderlands and can help us imagine a better future for this land. In my paintings, I am able to express a range of emotions through repetitive mark making and resonating, vibrant colors.
Today, the U.S.-Mexico border is constantly being misrepresented as a place of danger and violence. But to me the borderlands is home. It’s a place of humanity, solidarity, and compassion. This is my valentine from the borderlands.”
-Andrea Muñoz Martinez
Andrea Muñoz Martinez has an MFA in Studio Art from the University of California, Davis. Her work has been exhibited at the Santa Chiara Center in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy, the John Nicholas Brown Center at Brown University, the Visual Art Center at The University of Texas at Austin, and the Nelson Gallery at the University of California, Davis.
Click images to view full screen
Cascarones
A grid of one inch marks covers the entire canvas. The colors are organized to create stripes from top to bottom. The stripes change in color from yellow to blue to pink to yellow to orange to purple to blue to purple.
Self-portrait As A Roach Flying
A brown cockroach is decorated in bright blue, yellow and purple. It flies over green fences towards the sky. The roach is painted over a dark blue background.
Self-portrait As A Roach Sleeping
A brown roach lays on its side with one hind leg raised towards the sky. It rests at the base of a green wall painted on a dark blue, brown and green background. The roach is decorated with bright colors of blue, yellow and purple.
Valentine
A grid of one inch marks covers the entire canvas. Stripes from blue to grey to green to pink to green to pink to yellow to blue create the sky background. The foreground is created by the bottom yellow, red and purple stripes. At the top of the painting is a rectangular building with a large opening through which you can see right through. Underneath the building is a large yellow, hollow shape of a heart. The background of the heart is decorated with designs of arrows, circles and dashes.
Pink Fence in Borderlandia
The painting is outlined in pink. One Blue and white target creates the background of the landscape where a pink and blue fence stand behind a grey and purple circle.
Fence in Borderlandia With Target
The painting is outlined in bright green. There is a pink grid that is layered on top of a dark purple background. There is a pink rectangle with an orange and green target in the middle of the painting.
Blue Striped Fence in Borderlandia
A blue striped fence sits on a green foreground and circular yellow background. The landscape is outlined in yellow. The painting is signed at the bottom, “17 AMMO AMO."
Fence in Borderlandia (Signed AMMO)
A pink grid is layered over the entire landscape. A green rectangle sits on a blue foreground and red background. There is a green heart at the lower left hand corner of the composition. The painting is signed “17 AMMO” across the bottom.
Memory of a Vast Landscape
Small brushstrokes form grids of overlapping color. Yellow, green, red, blue, grey marks fill up the portrait composition.
I Can See the Fence at Night
The painting is made up of one grid of marks an inch in length. The colors yellow, green, blue, pink and purple make up the stripes of color from top to bottom. The bright colored grid lays on a dark purple background.
Yellow Color Study
Thin repeating marks make eight circles that spread out over the rectangular composition. The colors are a yellow spectrum.
Camouflaged Fence
Small orange and purple marks form a radial pattern over the entire portrait composition. Long blue marks repeat from left to right in the middle of the canvas. The ground is yellow.
Fluorescent Color Study
Marks of concentric orange and pink circles outline the portrait composition. Yellow curves are layered underneath orange and pink squares. A grid of small orange marks layer the bottom of the portrait. The ground is white.
