TXMX

Cavazos Madrigal, Analise Minjarez and Sarita Westrup
July 15-August 12, 2017
Closing reception Saturday, August 12 from 6:00-8:00 pm
Artists will be in attendance

Kirk Hopper Fine Art is pleased to feature TXMX, a three-person exhibit with artists Daniela Cavazos Madrigal (San Antonio), Analise Minjarez (Denton) and Sarita Westrup (Dallas). Using unconventional materials such as cement, wire and discarded textiles, artists Madrigal, Minjarez and Westrup tackle issues of migration, cultural identity and the fracturing of our communal fabric. All three artists grew up in border towns of Texas and each explores the truths of the migrant trajectory.

Sarita Westrup, Ex Votos (Breasts), 2016, cement casting, sizes variable

Daniela Cavazos Madrigal sources discarded clothing from warehouses in her native Laredo (which sells mounds of clothing by the pound) and embroiders lyrics from popular corridos, Mexican narrative themed ballads about oppression and daily life. Madrigal doesn't view these items as just clothing but as deeply personal artifacts that are symbolic of identity and shelter, and as stand-ins for the human body. Daniela states, "My body of work is built around the illusive notion of the American Dream. The understanding that inequity is systematic and difference is often met with hostility is the driving force behind my work."

Analise Minjarez incorporates found objects, textiles and native crops to evoke a minimalistic aesthetic that echos the beauty and fragility of life on desolate borderlands. Most recently, Minijarez has been exploring the ideas of nets as both a textile binding technique and as a symbol for the sky and stars shared between two countries. Analise states, "I engage in the repetition of net making to contemplate both the tension necessary to create the knots of a net and the social strain between people living on separated land. In addition, the net, although commonly perceived as a barrier, provides portholes of cultural and social understanding."

In addition to using natural found material, Sarita Westrup also experiments with man-made materials such as plastics, cement and wire, materials that can all be found peppered throughout the border landscape. Westrup casts plastic water bottles and jugs out of cement, evoking sentimental offerings to those who have made the journey across the border. Westrup's materials reference Mexican-American identity and border trafficking, and question stability along the border region.

Analise Minjarez is a fibers artist and educator from El Paso. Minjarez creates sculptures and installations using natural dyes, hog gut, found objects and plastics to highlight the contextual differences between materials. Her art investigates Mexican-American identity and the metaphysical awareness created by the landscape of the Texas-Mexico borderland. Minjarez received her BFA in Fibers from the University of North Texas and was recognized for Innovative Use of Materials by the Dallas Area Fiber Artists in 2013.

Sarita Westrup is a fiber artist and art educator from the borderlands of Texas and Mexico. She was born in Edinburgh, Texas and raised in McAllen. She now lives and works in north Texas and is motivated to make work about her homeland. This comes from a desire to connect with the border as well as her desire to see her bi-cultural experience represented in the art world. She has a BFA in Studio Arts with a concentration in Fibers and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of North Texas. Her sculptural work explores identify in relationship to place through the use of found objects and weaving techniques.