ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA
BLUER THAN A SKY WEEPING BONES
May 27 - July 6, 2016
Opening Reception May 27, 6 - 8pm
Gaa Gallery Provincetown
Gaa Gallery – Provincetown is pleased to present Bluer Than a Sky Weeping Bones, new paintings by Esteban Cabeza de Baca. The exhibition will run from May 27 to July 6. Please join us for an opening reception and artist talk on Friday, May 27 from 6 – 8pm.
“Bluer Than a Sky Weeping Bones, is a line taken from a poem by Natalie Diaz. In her poem nature and art rip through the rape and pillage of America. These words echo my painting practice. Observational painting from nature is my base for inquiry. The tradition of American plein aire painting is insufficient. It needs to speak to the truth of America’s past, present and future. Petroglyphs, my ancestor Alvar Nunez’ writings, ledger art and my encounters with contemporary Western painting merge with my observations. I hope that through my dances with paint, I can awaken people from their spiritual anemia.” – Esteban Cabeza de Baca
Esteban Cabeza de Baca is a New York based narrative painter. He works from observation to create landscape paintings informed by his Native American and Mexican ancestry. Pulling from a personal and collective archive of images and histories, the work creates multi-dimensional landscapes. Image, material and process are paired with archetypal figures, personal imagery and art historical references to painting, landscape, and composition. In these spaces reoccurring characters are presented in different contexts of time, space and circumstance. Familiar and unfamiliar motifs are layered, reoccurring and imbued with specificity and significance. From the ever present figure, an elder, an overseer to spiders, webs and bodily limbs, to plant life, textile and geological formation, these images form scenes of nature, atrocity, and history - these images are a restorative act.
Esteban Cabeza de Baca (b. 1985) is from the border town of San Ysidro, CA and lives and works in NY, NY. Esteban has attended such residencies as the LMCC Workspace Program, the Sharpe-Walentas Residency and the Byrdcliffe Residency. He is the recipient of the Gamblin painting grant and the Stern fellowship. He has exhibited at the David Richard Gallery (NM.), Dickinson Gallery (NY.), Fisher Landau Center for Art (NY), Museum of Outdoor Arts (CO.) and Columbia University (NY.). Esteban holds a BFA from The Cooper Union where he’s also lectured on his work in 2014 and an MFA from Columbia University.
Thank you to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for the time and space to create this show.