Artist Statement

My first solo exhibition at Boston’s Kingston Gallery, Response, features drawings, prints, and installation work spanning more than two decades. Inspired by current events, my practice attempts to both humanize tragedy and combat the numbing effects of a media-saturated culture. Through my intricate art-making process I find steadiness in a chaotic world.

The enduring seventeen-year war in Afghanistan, the clandestine drone program in Pakistan, the Syrian refugee crisis, gun violence, and domestic political turmoil are some of the subjects I have investigated. In the early 2000s, my studio work focused on large-scale drawings in gunpowder and graphite, inspired by small details in newspaper photographs. Through these materials, I became deeply intimate with the tactile nature of my process, using the volatility of gunpowder in combination with powdered graphite. This exploration naturally expanded into three dimensions; for the past fifteen years, I have developed several large-scale installation projects that extend these critical conversations into physical space.

The earliest piece in this exhibition is Untitled (Custody), a 2010 gunpowder and graphite drawing depicting a Guatemalan immigrant awaiting deportation in Phoenix. Other early works include selections from my 2017 monoprint series, Dangerous Threat, which responded to the political rhetoric surrounding immigration, Syrian refugees, and border enforcement. Deadly Weapons (2020-21), which was installed at the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site in Philadelphia through 2025, uses a combination of multicolored shoelaces and Mylar strips to reference the experiences of immigrants detained at the U.S.–Mexico border. In its 2027 reconfiguration at Kingston Gallery, the installation implicitly addresses the current realities of immigration crackdowns, racial profiling, unwarranted arrests, and daily family separations.

My most recent work addresses the fragility of our times, charting a new direction that my studio practice took in March of 2024. During a walk in the woods, I discovered a scattering of blue feathers—a silent reminder of a predator attack and nature’s complex splendor. I began translating these forms into detailed graphite and colored pencil drawings. In many of the newest images, drawn or printed feathers replace symbols of forceful geopolitical power with themes of vulnerability, lightness, and nature, suggesting a softening around the relentless daily news cycle. Among these is a current series of gunpowder and graphite drawings, including For Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Houston, July 7, 2026, created to pay tribute to and mourn victims of recent immigration crackdowns.

The exhibition also includes De-Classified, a recent project chronicling extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean by the U.S. military since September 2, 2025. In this series of small collages, one for each day of attack, I utilize elements made from products derived from crude oil and natural gas.

Even while engaging with challenging subjects, I find that art-making offers a vital sense of relief in an unstable world, both for myself as the artist and for the viewer. Ultimately, I intend for my exhibition to create an engaging aesthetic experience that encourages thoughtful, open discussion around volatile socio-political issues.