Spotlight Artist

Jesus Trevino

West
Artist profile photo

Broken Rejas

Two people smiling behind ornate black wrought iron bars.

used motor oil, polyurethane, mesquite charcoal, vine charcoal, canvas, burlap frescos, bondo, and paperclay

Memories of a Home I’ll Never See Again

People cooking together in a kitchen, framed by rough wooden sticks.

oil paint, graphite, charcoal, ink, gessoed paper, wood, corrugated plastic, tape, paperclay, air dry clay, and found keys

No Se Donde Vamos, But We’ll Get There

Black frame with a photo of a cowboy and horse, rustic metal details on the right.

used motor oils, polyurethane, mesquite charcoal, vine charcoal, graphite, lead white, corrugated plastic, wire, tape, paperclay, arches primed paper, plywood, screw, and magnets

Featured in New American Paintings1 / 3

Artist Statement

 Rooted in my experience being raised in the US-Mexico borderlands, my work deals with loss and the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. I am interested in land’s capacity to hold traces of unresolved tensions when thinking about histories of movement, displacement of people, and how that shapes my identity as it continues to shift, fade, and reassemble.

I am interested in the idea of a false memory—distortions of reality that can transform a moment into mythology and folklore. Using disruption, concealment, and layering, my practice allows for a slow unfolding of stories that often don’t have a resolution but resist being buried beneath the surface of unstable and agitated paintings. I’ll make quick thumbnail sketches of moments I remember and then work from a bank of collected images found in family photo albums, social media profiles, personal archives, and articles about the border to flesh out these memories that are affected by, yet composed of, material, tools, and techniques that speak to my desire to rediscover histories as well as the importance of keeping them alive.

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