CONDO 2018: MAUREEN PALEY hosting JOSÉGARCÍA ,MX

EDUARDO SARABIA

Across drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and video, Eduardo Sarabia (b. 1976, Los Angeles) investigates the construction and contradictions of individual and cultural identities. Personal histories and his own background as a child of Mexican immigrants growing up in Los Angeles are often a point of departure for the artist. Through a process of intensive research and travel, Sarabia creates expansive narrative themes that run throughout his oeuvre, exploring such topics as pre-Columbian mythology, Mexican history, and the complex interplay between legal and illicit economies. Sarabia frequently appropriates Mesoamerican symbols and Mexican folk art traditions—some of his best-known works incorporate blue-and-white Talavera ceramics—and combines them with references to narco, or drug, culture, as well as popular culture. Sarabia is both insider and outsider, and his practice operates across borders and contexts. Mining this unique position, he reveals ironies of contemporary society and offers a pointed socio-political critique. He reflects on the commodification of Mexican culture and the ways in which it can be…