StoreI was born in Mexico City in 1988 and raised as a child immigrant in the south side of Chicago. Growing up in the south side of Chicago is hard, especially for a little gay Mexican kid. I questioned my position in society as the product of a lower-class household growing skeptical of the white institutionalized art world.
Working up to my “American Dream,” I received a B.A. in Studio Art from Northeastern Illinois University and a Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Chicago. During my studies, I exhibited my work at various galleries around town. Soon after my studies, I moved to Belgium to join my husband and continue my career in Brussels.
I make portraits and functional sculptural objects. My work reflects personal social anxiety within an urban environment and reality’s imperfect, chaotic nature. These sculptures question the spectacle of perfection as performed by individuals and the norms I inherited as a part of my social conditioning.
My current work explores the decolonization of my practice, ideals, and presentation within the Western world. Since moving to Brussels and making Belgium my home, I have encountered a culture shock that deepened wounds I acquired as a child immigrant in the United States.
I grew up in an environment that was inherently racist, homophobic, and paranoid. As an immigrant child, I was held to a higher standard of conduct than my peers because the consequence of misbehavior could be my removal from the country. My sculptural work questions these deeply rooted memories.
My work is sometimes participatory and performative concerning personal and collective identity sprinkled with a mix of sexuality, gender, colonization, and Mexican folklore. As if in an ancient rite of passage, hiding, masking, and flaunting blend into an experience of self-display and self-affirmation, transforming shame and otherness into security and pride. The sculptures give the viewer or participant access to a sacred space, my world, and culture- through the experience of a Mexican who was not Mexican enough for his heritage and not American enough for his peers.
My artistic practice has evolved into a process-oriented exploration, focusing on the intangible aspects of art-making. I aim to critically examine the importance of exchange and shared moments of intimacy in the creation process.