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In a materials-based practice that draws on Mexican handcraft traditions and a DIY sensibility, ektor garcia subtly challenges hierarchies of gendered and racialized labor while undermining notions of static identity. He draws from a unique vocabulary of materials—copper wire, cast metals, glass, clay, horsehair, seashells, and leather—which he weaves, knots, and crochets into objects at once vulnerable and resistant, soft and hard. He begins each piece with a single gesture or stitch, which he repeats over countless hours to create long chains, textiles, nets, and altar-like accumulations. Such works are shaped by the artist’s responsiveness to materials, environmental and social contexts, and the intuitive inattention that develops with manual repetition. As sculptures, they are quiet but restless—psychologically and politically charged in their misleading delicacy and susceptibility to transformation.
Records of time and labor, garcia’s creations are only ever paused in their growth, never complete. The artist is also known to undo previously exhibited objects, reshaping and gathering them into new constellations. Through his practice, he opens up new possibilities for making and knowing that are constantly engaged in a process of unraveling and reworking, learning and quiet change.
In SJMA’s Davies Gallery, garcia’s installation will incorporate existing and new sculptures repurposed into a single, new installation. Originally from California, the artist is currently living nomadically; this exhibition marks his homecoming to the Bay Area.
