Raúl de Nieves: A window to the see, a spirit star chiming in the wind of wonder…

Lower Level Galleries

September 30, 2023 — September 01, 2024

In A window to the see..., Raúl de Nieves (b. 1983 in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico; lives and works in Brooklyn, New York) presents an interplay of colored light and poetic prompts to guide visitors on a journey of continual transformation. Using the everyday materials of acetate and tape, the Brooklyn-based artist has custom-fit his signature “stained glass” to the three immense skylights that span the gallery. The lucent window panels transmute the transitional natural light, creating an ever-changing atmosphere inside the gallery, while illuminating a narrative of perpetual becoming told through images of colossal archetypes. For de Nieves, the imagery is symbolic of the relationship between the earthly, bodily, material realm and the metaphysical, spiritual, ancestral one. By bringing these dimensions together, the artist invites us to imagine what a celestial landscape could be and to temporarily inhabit this infinity of possibility.

Throughout his practice, de Nieves uses humble, mundane, or castoff materials, refashioning and revaluing the commonplace to create dazzling new forms that animate the potential for evolution and multiplicity of the self. Working across the mediums of painting, sculpture, performance, sound, and installation, his densely textured works draw from personal and collective mythologies that often evoke forms of ritual and celebration. By fusing the aesthetic traditions of Mexican craft, Catholicism, the Tarot, the canon of European art, drag performance, and punk music, de Nieves mines enduring narratives for themes of self-actualization and rebirth. The figural bead sculptures in the exhibition The Deaths of Everyday and Celebration (mother) embody this process of regeneration. De Nieves manifests these sculptures from artworks previously either intentionally destroyed or accidentally damaged, engaging the potential of renewal from fracture.

The exhibition title, A window to the see, A spirit star chiming in the wind of wonder…, is also the first line in a poem written by de Nieves while making the “stained glass.” Each stanza of the poem corresponds to one of the twenty-one window panels. Wrapping the interior of the gallery, the poem invites circumambulation of the space and meditative, inner reflection, while the temple-like seating arrangement at the center of the gallery offers an opportunity to spend extended time in contemplation of the windows above. As an immersive experience, de Nieves’s installation is a portal to an alternative world, inspired by the power and possibility of wonder and imagination in daily life.

Artist Bio

Raúl de Nieves has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions in North America and internationally. He has presented solo exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; and the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Georgia, among other institutions. Additionally, he has participated in group exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; the High Line, New York; the K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; the New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and numerous other venues. De Nieves has staged performances at institutions including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and MoMA PS1, Queens. He has been an artist in residence at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and Fountainhead, Miami, as well as a fellow at the Joan Mitchell Foundation. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In the fall of 2023, in addition to the exhibition at the Henry, de Nieves's work will also be shown in a new commission at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Publication

An accompanying publication produced by the Henry, with essays by both curators, the full text of de Nieves’s poem, and installation images, is available for purchase.

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CREDITS

Raúl de Nieves: A window to the see, a spirit star chiming in the wind of wonder… is organized by Nina Bozicnik, Curator at the Henry Art Gallery, and Risa Puleo, Independent Curator. Generous support is provided by the Floyd and Delores Jones Endowed Fund for the Arts, with additional support from Company Gallery and Morán Morán. Media sponsorship is provided by The Stranger.