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.
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Green Fairy Garden Gate
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