July 27 - August 26, 2023
From La Mecha Contemporary:
“La Mecha Contemporary presents Under the Same Sky featuring works by Las Cruces artist Eva Gabriella Flynn.
Flynn is a Mexican-American interdisciplinary artist whose work intertwines personal and historical narratives of the US/Mexico border. Her imagery is inspired by both the psychological and physical landscapes that shape the region she calls home. Under the Same Sky features flags, maps, and paintings that weave historical and personal narratives to create an intimate re-imagined world of the Borderlands.
My earliest memory is at the border. Agents are questioning my relationship with family members, my relationship with home. I am four and confused because home is here but also there.
Today, my work lives in this liminal space between the US-Mexico border. I weave personal memory and iconography of the Southwest into the desert landscape, charting physical and psychological spaces. The imagery maps the invisible or intangible relationships and stories that have shaped the American Southwest and, much like skies, recognize neither borders nor time.
I draw on my experiences as a Mexican-American woman in the Borderlands, growing up in a region that has consistently been scapegoated, parodied, or the subject of misinformation. The Borderlands are simultaneously romanticized but feared; beautiful but dangerous; unified but forced to divide.
Drawing inspiration from multiple timelines, my work exists in a reality where cowboys duel to Juanga and Selena, and the borders that divide us are not erected. In my imagery, parodied icons of the Southwest and Chicanx culture become signifiers of a collective memory and mark a way back home. Together, my imagery records stories of home, belonging, and cowboy hats.
BIO:
Eva Gabriella Flynn attended New Mexico State University and received a BFA in Studio Arts and a BA in Foreign Languages. She earned her MFA in Studio Arts with a concentration in painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2021. Most recently, Eva Gabriella was a recipient of the Chihuahuan Desert Cultural Fellowship, named a 2022 Emerging Artist of New Mexico grant and award recipient through the Harwood Art Center, a Meghan Furgueson Mraz award recipient through the Harwood Art Center, and participated as the Spring Artist in Residence at the Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at the Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL; SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM; Museo del Ferrocaril, Santa Barbara, Chihuahua, Mexico; and Instituto de Lorenzo Medici, Florence, Italy.”
Reception: July 27, 2023 | 6–9 pm
3803 Frutas Avenue
El Paso, 79905 Texas
915-440-3278
Get directions