Art Review: “Encounters in the Garden”
Laredo-based artist renders open interaction with the unfamiliar
Reviewed by Lina Fisher, Fri., July 12, 2024
Interactive art experiences are now plentiful thanks to the ubiquity of the smartphone, but Josias Figueirido uses the technology to uniquely heartwarming and thought-provoking effect in his current show at Ivester Contemporary, asking viewers to emulate the openness of his characters – a little 3D guy and his companion coyote – as they traverse a foreign land. But go now: “Encounters in the Garden” closes Saturday.
A professor of art at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Figueirido was born in Spain but has traveled widely, living in London, Philadelphia, and now on the Texas-Mexico border. “Encounters in the Garden” follows two characters, Piri the Dreamer and Flying Coyote, as they move through a lush garden. The more open they are to what the garden offers, the more its playful anthropomorphic flora open themselves to the explorers. In the exhibition text, Figueirido writes, “These unique beings reveal themselves only in moments of safety, and otherwise blend seamlessly into their surroundings as common plants and animals.”
This kind of curiosity without pretense is what Kevin Ivester aims to cultivate at his space. “This is a commercial gallery, so I stay open to sales. That’s one of the biggest services that I provide to artists,” he says. “But the most important thing is I want people to walk out of here feeling like they left with new value added to their life. I want to show positive artwork, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I want it to be just rainbows and butterflies. I want to use this space to have deeper conversations.” Piri is a Dreamer, and his friend is a Coyote, which Ivester hopes will provoke viewers to think about the border and immigration. “I think art is such a good place to have those conversations, because it’s not screaming at you, it’s not aggressive toward you. People can really approach pretty difficult conversations at their own speed.”
The main gallery space houses “Encounters in the Garden,” but to its right in the smaller project space sits “Los Tremendos.” A series of colorful linocuts by Juan de Dios Mora, a San Antonio-based artist who was born in Mexico and emigrated in 1998, depicts larger-than-life luchadores, some who more resemble biblically accurate angels. In the exhibition text, Mora writes, “In some regions in Mexico, it is believed that everyone has a guardian angel. Such beings advise people to do good deeds, while protecting them from dangers and evil. As people grow older, their perspective changes from guardian angels to physical heroes. Luchadores is a representation of physical heroes, because of their immense strength and agility to overcome adversity.” The result is a bizarre collection of human faces wrought with feeling, atop monster truck-style wheels in motion. These characters convey that strength amid adversity and interplay with the sweet curiosity of Piri in the strange land in the next room.
The two artists’ techniques are vastly different, but united by a printmakers’ sensibility – in Mora’s case, they are literally linocuts. Figueirido sketches in Blender, a 3D modeling software used by architects, and then paints the images onto canvas that’s been sanded 20 times to ensure a smooth application, meticulously applying each layer of color separately, like a woodblock or linocut printmaking process. The result is paintings that resemble the amorphous digital feeling of a primitive video game landscape. If you scan a QR code, Piri, the Coyote, and other characters bob around the gallery space with you in your phone, giving the feeling you’re all exploring the garden together.
“I want people to leave here learning something; I want people to feel fulfilled,” says Ivester. “I hope that looking at the show inspires you to say, oh, yeah, maybe I can go anywhere in the world. And if I’m open, I’ll receive open people in return.”
“Encounters in the Garden”
Ivester contemporary
Through July 13
