May 26 - July 22, 2023
From Art League Houston:
“Art League Houston (ALH) is pleased to present Amazonian Days, an exhibition of paintings by David Delgado, whose practice captures mundane objects that embody poignant yet unspoken narratives about labor, material wealth, and capitalism. This body of work references objects that the artist was given while working
at an Amazon warehouse from 2021-22 and captures the nature of the employer-to- employee gifting dynamic.
For the artist, the still life paintings featured in Amazonian Days serve as a reminder of a time when Amazon, his employer, exchanged and bartered labor hours with gifts.
During this time, it was commonplace for work shifts to be cut due to shipping shortages. Management was simultaneously offering employees random incentives, mostly in the form of gifts, which ranged from sweets, food, and workwear. Delgado photographically documented these gifts as they were received and later rendered them in acrylic on panel. Delgado’s exploitative work experience at Amazon is not unfamiliar to the artist. He recalls when his family first immigrated to the United States from Mexico, family members would be compensated less than minimum wage while at the same time be given gifts of furniture and appliances. By memorializing these mundane objects as paintings, the artist aims to disrupt and question the absurdities that we disregard for the sake of normalcy. David Delgado (b.1992) is a visual artist from Houston, Texas. As a first-generation Mexican American with a bilingual upbringing, symbolic language is a strong part of the artwork he creates. Through questioning and showcasing objects that often go disregarded, Delgado’s work evokes larger conversations centered around labor and value in a capitalistic-centered environment. Delgado earned his BFA in Studio Art Sculpture from the University of Houston in 2014. He was an illustrator for the Daily Cougar Newspaper 2011-2014. From 2013-2021, he worked as a bronze patineur and office manager at a bronze art foundry that his family established. He has since returned to academics, teaching art to K-6 students with organizations such as MECA. Delgado’s work has been featured throughout Texas, exhibiting work with the Mexic Arte Museum (Austin, TX), Hardy & Nance Studios (Houston, TX), Craighead Green Gallery (Dallas, TX), Fort Worth Community Art Center (Fort Worth, TX), Moody Gallery (Houston, TX), and Blaffer Art Museum (Houston, TX). https://daviddelgadoart.com/ Instagram: @daviddelgadoart For more information, visit www.artleaguehouston.org, or contact Zhaira Costiniano, Exhibitions and Curatorial Projects Manager, at [email protected] or 713-523-9530. Art League Houston is funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Endowment, Inc. Brown Foundation, Inc. Texas Commission on the Arts, and National Endowment for the Arts.”
Reception: May 26, 2023 | 6–8 pm
1953 Montrose Boulevard
Houston, 77006 TX
(713) 523-9530
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