ektor garcia: nu.dos

ektor garcia’s nu.dos - a play on the Spanish word nudos, meaning knots, phonetically separated into two words, nu and dos, meaning two new, or new two - expands the lexicon of his visual language by introducing previously unexplored materials such as paper raffia, hemp and house paint, and re-imagining past works. The result is an intricately layered investigation of time and place, and the manifestation that art is dynamic, continually evolving, adjusting and reflecting meaning and emotion, akin to humanity.

Expansion reveals itself in scale as well as signification, as garcia debuts his largest single crocheted copper work, crochet copper mandala. At just over 9 feet tall and nearing 6 feet wide, garcia engaged his whole body to create the signature round doily structure. The marquee piece dwarfs the viewer, a reversal of roles, the opposite of the traditional experience of a household tabletop item, magnified, physical and all-encompassing.

Evoking the human body as well as domestic items and natural or architectural forms, garcia’s time intensive practice is rooted in the soulful beauty of craft traditions while allowing for the broadening of traditional crafts’ defining material elements. Already pushing these boundaries with his well-known use of materials such as copper wire, leather, horsehair and shells, garcia now revisits previously completed works and introduces additional elements. In pieles (formerly wire mesh), a suspended sculpture of crocheted copper wire, garcia partially disassembles and reconstructs the original, adding a dyed black raffia border and structured copper tube. Maintaining the spirit of his initial effort, garcia allows for reinvention and fresh possibilities, his practice a tangible marker of contrast and transformation.