Review: Nela Garzón’s “Not One of Us” at Redbud Arts Center, Houston

by Gabriel Martinez January 19, 2025
A gallery with three large tufted rugs installed on the walls.

Installation view of “Not One of Us”

How much information can a single artwork or a series of works convey? Often the content of art is built upon references to history, culture, and politics. An artist will allude to previous styles and genres to communicate their message, but the amount of research that goes into a piece isn’t always reflected in the object itself. To get their idea across to an unknown audience, artists use any and every tool at their disposal: aesthetics, humor, psychology, absurdity, satire.

In some cases, artists have multiple outlets for sharing the ideas that inform their work; press releases, artist talks, wall didactics, and other publications contribute to a fuller picture of the depth of their thinking. An art object is never alone in constructing the meaning of the artwork. In addition to the physical making of a piece, the artist reads, writes, and researches, but the amount of intellectual labor that goes into an artwork isn’t always evident in the piece on display. 

A tufted rug depicting two women fleeing on top of a large slice of watermelon while two missiles rain down on an olive tree.

Nela Garzón, “Pathway to Rafah Crossing,” 2024, variety of yarns over rug backing, 65.5 x 30.75 inches

The work in Nela Garzón’s Not One of Us, on view at the Redbud Arts Center in Houston, is deceptively simple. Two dozen tapestries lure viewers in with bright colors and flat, cartoonish depictions of figures in sparse landscapes. The works depict the effects of war, religious persecution, the drug trade, and the role free-market globalism plays in forced migration. Each piece illustrates a different person or group of people fleeing their country’s political violence. The artist plays on the linguistic overlap between a runner rug, which is placed in the threshold of a house, and citizens running from unstable social upheaval. 

A tufted rug depicting a large bear reaching out to attack a woman and an anthropomorphized bird.

Nela Garzón, “Pathway to Poland,” 2022, variety of yarns over rug backing and ribbons, 70.5 x 30 inches

In each rug, people in traditional outfits carry their belongings with them as they move through deserts, rivers, and mountainous regions. Garzón focuses not only on dominant national identities, but also minorities — often indigenous communities — within the countries she depicts. She explains, “There’s also displacement within a given nation — peoples forgotten within their own countries — on top of whatever else is occurring politically around the world. What happens to Indigenous communities with illegal mining and other exploitation? When civil war breaks out, people are hungry and they start to walk towards the border. They usually pass through Indigenous land. What happens there?”

A woman walks at the foot of a mountains past refugee tents carrying her belongings.

Nela Garzón, “Golden Crescent,” 2022, variety of yarns over rug backing and handmade fringe, 69.75 x 30 inches

Garzón’s runner rugs are mostly made with a tufting gun (although a few were made painstakingly by hand). Each has an individual frill at the bottom, unique to the country or ethnic groups it depicts. Other subtle hints contained in the pieces lead viewers to uncover the figures’ political backstories. Their titles also offer clues: Golden Crescent depicts an Afghani woman moving through a harsh mountainous region on the eponymous deadly trail. The route, which is the path through which opium is exported from Afghanistan, is perilous not only because of the terrain, but also because of the drug traffickers moving through it. The woman is escaping the threat posed by the Taliban’s strict laws governing women’s lives, as well as the danger of the criminal elements along the trail. Though this piece depicts a story specific to Afghani woman, a similar experience occurs in many countries, including the artist’s home of Colombia. 

Over the course of making this series, Garzón has refined her process. She started with loose Sharpie sketches on the backs of the rugs, but then moved to cleaner, layered drawings made on a tablet, which she projected onto her burlap substrates. Garzón learns new techniques for each series. Deciding what form the work will take and developing that skillset as she produces new pieces.

A grid of small rugs depicting animals whose habitats are endangered by globalism.

Nela Garzón, various animal rugs, 2022, latch hooked rugs, 9 x 9 inches

The exhibition also showcases a series of small 9 x 9-inch latch-hooked pieces that are displayed in a grid and show native plants and animals from the countries depicted in the runner rugs. With political upheaval that forces people to flee their homeland comes environmental decimation, which radically changes the natural habitats of species endemic to a land. Like the larger pieces, the grid reflects Garzón’s research into the cultural, social, and scientific history of the places she depicts. The subjects of both series are victims to conditions beyond their control. The effects of war and industrial exploitation aren’t limited to humans, but also wreak havoc on the flora and fauna. This broader field of research works in tandem with the rugs and the artist’s striving to create a fuller picture of a dire situation occurring globally. 

Three people cross a river while carrying their belongings.

Nela Garzón, “Rio Grande,” 2022, hand tufted tapestry, variety of yarns over rug backing and pompom trim, 66×30.5 inches

Garzón has no delusion about the political efficacy of her work, or of any artwork. An exhibition of figurative art in the Houston Heights won’t affect the course of warfare in the Global South, and it won’t discourage extraction capitalism or prompt religious tolerance. Instead, the works in Not One of Us are Trojan horses. They act as clickbait, enticing viewers to engage with serious issues just beneath their surfaces. They normalize discussions around migration at a time when immigrants are being criminalized and the U.S. Affirmative Asylum Process is being phased out. 

“The more rugs I make the more childish they look,” says Garzón. “I’m interested in people being attracted to the naive style of the images and then realizing ‘Oh no, now I have to have a political conversation.’”

 

Not One of Us is on view at Redbud Arts Center in Houston through February 22. There will be an artist’s talk on February 8 from 2-3 p.m.

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