- After the artist Dakota Mace’s exhibit: DAHODIYINII – SACRED PLACES (SITE Santa Fe, 2025)
By Rocío Rodríguez (03/06/2025)
Blood red,
indigo blue,
political colors
in Diné culture
provide healing too.
Land, memory and stars,
Ancestral knowledge
is shared in Dakota Mace’s art.
Abstracted souls,
it’s the land’s turn
to share their stories
that were once lost.
DAHODIYINII – SACRED PLACES
Harmony Hammond and the blank canvas
- After the artist Harmony Hammond’s “Fringe” Exhibit at SITE Santa Fe, 2025
By Rocío Rodríguez (03/02/2025)
Fuck the blank canvas.
Fuck the emptiness modernism brought.
The blank canvas is no more.
With every layer, a new language is born.
Very delicate,
very feminine,
very masculine,
very heavy.
But what’s feminine?
And what’s masculine?
What if fabric wants to behave like steel?
What if paint wants to behave like concrete mix?
What if a female artist wants to be called the Artist, and that’s it?
- After the artist N. Dash
By Rocío Rodríguez
The rock,
the artist,
no words,
no need,
personal,
abstract,
a poetic approach
on environmental concern,
in N Dash’s work
the silence was loud.
________________________________________
From the author:
“It took me some time to connect with her work, but once I did, my understanding of abstract art was redefined. N. Dash’s exhibit “and water…” left a permanent mark in me. A celebration of craftsmanship, a concern for the environment, an unexpected combination of different fields, a beautiful balance of personal experience with found objects, and an invitation for interpretation. By Rocío Rodríguez
- After the artist N. Dash
By Rocío Rodríguez
rock
object
artwork
nothing
everything
the experience of the space
intentional
found objects
landscape
personal
silence
A B S T R A C T I O N
and water
Queen without a crown.
- After the artist Carmen Herrera
By Rocío Rodríguez
Carmen, Carmen
A friend I wish I had,
A queen without a crown.
Hard to imagine how a line can capture a life.
Hard to imagine how a life can be told through a line.
The geometric language can be cold,
Carmen’s work is bold but not cold.
Modernism left emotions aside,
Carmen took modernism and then put it aside,
Carmen’s work is not about geometry,
Carmen’s work is about Carmen’s own life.
Carmen’s work, is a self-portrait work,
Carmen’s work captures what it's like to be a queen without a crown.
Adios,
Adios, Carmen.
Adios amiga, I never met.
Adios, my favorite piece.
Adios, her legacy remains.
Adios.
_______
From the author:
“When I read about Carmen Herrera’s work knowing that she wanted to be an architect and she painted geometrical and minimalist artworks, I wasn’t excited. I thought it was very cliché. When I walked the exhibit for the first time (“I am nobody, Who are you? At SITE Santa Fe 2024), I cried standing in front of “Adios” piece. In that moment she became more than one of my favorite artists, she became an inspiration, someone I wished I have met in person. I understood how expressive a single line can be. A passionate abstraction and the most elegant self-portrait work I’ve seen.”
- Rocío Rodríguez
Fuck the stretcher.
The viewer is not alone.
Fuck the stretcher.
The figure wants to move.
The figure doesn’t pose for you.
The figure looks back at you.
The figure keeps changing.
The figure evolves.
The figure adapts to the context.
The figure is female.
The painting is a sculpture.
The space is involved intimately with the figure.
The canvas is alive.
The canvas is me.
The figure is me.
The self-portrait is a political statement.
The self-portrait is everything.
The Self, The Artwork.
The artwork is me, I AM the artwork
I am the figure,
When I die, the artwork dies.