ADRIAN ESPARZA

ADRIAN ESPARZA

1 2 .03 . 2 0 03 – 1 . 24 . 2 0 0 4

Curated by Kate Bonansinga

f o r wa r d

We are honored and grateful to present this exhibition generously curated by Kate

Bonansinga. Ms. Bonansinga, the Director of University Art Galleries at the University

of Texas at El Paso, has chosen a young artist, Adrian Esparza. Mr. Esparza was

born and raised in El Paso and uses the borderland experience as artistic inspiration.

Ms. Bonansinga’s appreciation of Mr. Esparza’s work demonstrates how the Founda-

tions discretionary selection process allows differing forms of expression an

opportunity to be seen.

CUE appreciates that geographic location can sometimes limit an artists exhibition

possibilities elsewhere, thus CUE is pleased to offer Mr. Esparza the opportunity for

his first solo exhibition since graduating in 1998. Ms. Bonansinga and we, together,

wish him a future of fulfillment and success.

Adrian Esparza’s Notions 256-189

Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas together comprise the most densely populated

bi-national area in the world. The bridge across the Rio Grande River that divides the

two cities is short: many residents of Juarez commute daily to El Paso, and vice versa.

While the international border is permeable, it also clarifies the socioeconomic

inequalities that characterize both contemporary urban environments and the rela-

tionship between the U.S. and Mexico.

Adrian Esparza was born and raised in El Paso and returned here to live soon

after earning his graduate degree. He garners much of his source material and artistic

inspiration from his borderland experience, and the artist's daily encounter with this

political divide seems to nourish his perpetual challenge of generally accepted bound-

aries and hierarchies. In Trade and Sell, for example, Esparza mounts to the wall an

inexpensive Mexican blanket that he purchased from the market in Juarez. He then

unravels its bottom portion, and guides the piece of cotton thread through a maze of

nails affixed to the wall nearby to create a design that complements that of the

blanket. It also alludes to hard-edged, geometric painting, though the soft texture of

the material counter balances the linearity of the forms. By displaying the blanket as

fine art, Esparza sanctifies this popular Mexican product. The act of its deconstruction

and reconstruction references the dependence of present forms on past ones, and

suggests new life and possibilities.

This concept also underlies Esparza’s ceramic sculptures. For these he casts liquid

clay into hobbyist molds, disassembles the resulting objects before the clay is

completely dry, and then reassembles the parts into surreal works representing odd

combinations of plants, animals and other organic matter. In Come and See, for

example, a human head sprouts from a rabbit’s neck. In Nature and Nurture, a flower

blossom replaces the face of a seated boy. Esparza presents several of his sculptures

in groupings. For one he gathers small pieces into a basket, transforming them into a

centerpiece or three-dimensional still life. In another the sculptures line up on a

narrow platform mounted directly onto casters, and thus suggest both community

cu rator’s s tat e m e n t

and ease of movement. Displayed at ankle height, they upset the traditional eye-level

encounter between viewer and artwork. All of the sculptures are raw white, pale coun-

terparts to the vibrantly colored blankets, their smooth, monochromatic surfaces well

suited to their complex forms. Esparza grafts together typically unrelated images to

make art from the things and events of everyday life.

A third component in this body of work are Esparza’s paintings on bed sheets.

For these the artist photocopies one of his drawings onto a transparency, projects the

rendering onto a wall-mounted, full-sized, white bed sheet, and then traces the trans-

mitted image in black fabric paint. Machine parts, smoke stacks and human figures

crowd together, morph into one another, evolve into themselves, and almost

completely consume their backdrop. The now-defunct copper smelter that towers

over the western edge of El Paso inspires the industrial imagery. The painting’s

graphic renderings connote both comic books and patterned textiles. Considered

together the bed sheets and blankets speak of protection, warmth, sleep and dreams,

and connect the imagery to subconscious thoughts and yearnings.

In all of these works, Esparza imbues the materials and processes of the decora-

tive and popular arts with conceptual potency. His methodologies and titles suggest

that opposites come together in a passing from one place, time and state of mind to

another. The artists refers to his ideas as “notions,” lending them a sense of chance

and superstition, and numbers them in reverse, like anonymous products of

descending dates or importance. But the art work that results from these “notions” is

much more than ordinary because Esparza alters and assembles commonplace

objects so that they become something greater than themselves.

Kate Bonansinga

COME AND SEE

Ceramic, 18" x 7" x 7", 2003

Rococococo

By constructing an environment of production, the object contributes to the devel-

opment of an event. Entering this space causes the object to fracture. Evaluation

fragments the fragile item. Particles existing in this restless environment unite to form

acceptable interpretations of events. These notions emerge as fresh forms that

reflect the migratory process of production.

Adrian Esparza

ar t i s t’s stat eme n t

FRESH AND NEW

Ceramic, 4" x 4" x 4", 2003

N ATURE AND NURT U R E

Ceramic, 10" x 8" x 8", 2003

HIS AND HERS

Ceramic, 8" x 6" x 6", 2003

LAND AND SEA

Ceramic, 8" x 8" x 9", 200 3

TRADE AND SELL

Sarape and nails, dimensions variable, 2003

D E LTA QUA D R A N T

tktk

U N T I T L E D

Ink on paper, 14" x 36", 2003

U N T I T L E D

Ink on paper, 24" x 36", 2003

U N T I T L E D

Ink on paper, 18" x 12", 2003

U N T I T L E D

Ink on paper, 18" x 12", 2003

art i s t ’s b iogra p h y

Adrian Esparza currently lives and works in El Paso, TX where he was born in 1970.

In 1996, he received a BFA from the University of Texas at El Paso, and then graduat-

ed in 1998 with an MFA from the California Institute for the Arts. In 2003 he was

included in the Texas Trialogues: San Antonio - El Paso – Denton exhibition at the

Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, TX as well as Come Forward: Emerging Artists in

Texas at the Dallas Museum of Art, TX. In 2002 Esparza, participated in the Border

Art Residency Program, La Union in New Mexico. He currently teaches Design and

Drawing at the University of Texas at El Paso and also Design and Art Appreciation

at El Paso Community College as well as Drawing at the El Paso Museum of Art.

c u rator’ s b i ogra p h y

Kate Bonansinga is the Director of University Art Galleries at the University of Texas

at El Paso. Bonansinga earned a B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan,

Ann Arbor and an M.A. in art history, with a focus on the art of Asia, from the

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. From 1991-1999 she taught art history at

the Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, Oregon, where she also served as

director and curator of the College's exhibition gallery, There she developed an inter-

est in contemporary art that resides at the intersection of materials-oriented fine

craft and concept-driven fine art. Her most recent curatorial projects have focused

on the art of the U.S./Mexico borderlands, including Crossing Over: Photographs and

New Video Installations by Willie Varela, which is traveling throughout Texas. She

serves on the editorial advisory board for Artlies Magazine, Houston, TX and as a

national art peer for the Office of the Chief Architect of the United States.

U N T I T L E D

Ink on paper, 18" x 12", 2003

c u e a r t fo u n d at io n m iss ion s tat e m e n t

CUE Art Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides deserving artists

from around the country an opportunity for solo exhibition. Located in New York’s

Chelsea gallery district, the Foundation’s 2,000 sq.ft. ground floor exhibition

space affords these artists professional exposure comparable to that offered by

neighboring commercial galleries, without the usual financial restraints. CUE does

not promote a particular school of artistic thought or practice; rather, the criteria

for selection have been devised with the sole purpose in mind of exhibiting work

by artists who have not had a solo exhibition in a commercial venue, or have

received minimal exposure in New York in the last ten years.

At the core of CUE’s mission is the determination to foster an agenda-free

program of twelve exhibiting artists a year, each handpicked by a single curator.

An on-site artist-in-residence program offers selected artists studio space in which

to produce or finish work for their exhibition at CUE.

The responsibility to choose qualified individuals from the visual arts and

beyond to act as exhibition curators rests with CUE’s Advisory Council, an honorary

group of artists and leading figures from the arts education, applied arts, art

history, and literary communities. The curators, in turn, will play a role throughout

the exhibition process, helping the artist catalogue his or her work for exhibition,

and participating in gallery lectures and programs.

Educational initiatives in the form of public programs and artists’ dialogues

will take advantage of the diverse community that participates in CUE's gallery and

studio programming. Foundation internships and stipends will help prepare the

next generation of artists and art educators by providing practical working

knowledge of the art making and exhibition process.

B OA RD O F DI R EC TO R S

Gregory Amenoff

Thomas G. Devine

Thomas K. Y. Hsu

Brian D. Starer

A DV I S O RY CO U N C I L

Gregory Amenoff

Vicky A. Clark

William Corbett

Petah Coyne

James Drake

Bruce Ferguson

Sanford Hirsch

Dana Hoey

G A L L E R Y DI REC TO R

Jeremy Adams

G A L L E R Y AS S I STA N T

Sandhini Poddar

AL L A RT WOR K © AD RI A N ESPA R Z A

C ATA LO G D ES IGNE D BY S P E C K , BRO OK LYN , N Y