Existing between painting and sculpture, Eric Manuel Santoscoy-McKillip’s sculpture/painting hybrids speak to the identity of the Southwest, specifically the US-Mexico borderland. Anyone who has spent time in the region will recognize the familiar trappings: terracotta, stucco, adobe, asymmetry, gardens, and arches. Utilizing bright, commercially available colors, the work points to the continually shifting identities and histories of both the artist and the geographic region, carrying the classic earth-hued architectural features into the present with bright pinks, saturated blues, and deep, rich purples. Santoscoy-McKillip sees his practice as a bridge to connect to people and places which are no longer, and his personal lexicon builds on and preserves these histories, paying respects to the lineage of painting in the Southwest (sand painting, sign painting, car painting, murals, landscape). It is practices like Santoscoy-McKillip’s that carry the past into the future, and elevate the mundane into personal expressions of beauty.
More ArtWork
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Fuilles Vertes
This piece was about the posture of the person and how it connected to a natural element like green leaves.I elongated the neck to give the figure a bird-like quality and softness. I enjoy letting the watercolor bleed and move on its own and then I go back in to add structure. Shereene Fogenay was born […]
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Can’t Help Falling in Love
A “holy” portrait of being a modern day artist and performer in Las Vegas. Over the course of the nearly 11 minute video loop, Heidi transforms in and out of being Elvis from inside a neon shrine. The sculpture is about identity, performance, transformation and the labor that goes into being an artist.
