RAÚL DE NIEVES
Raúl de Nieves is a New York based, Mexican interdisciplinary artist, performer, and musician whose multifaceted practice includes stained-glass-style narrative paintings, animated performances, densely adorned figurative sculptures encrusted with bangles, beads, bells, sequins, and other homespun materials. His sculptural, installation, and performance pieces make reference to religious iconography, mythology, and BDSM in conjunction with Mexican tradition and drag culture in order to explore themes of transformation and the mutability of sexuality.
ABOUT THE WORK:
De Nieves has created a new work for the exhibition that employs his characteristically opulent techniques of adornment which reference traditional Mexican costume and modes of dress from drag, ballroom, and queer club cultures, while also evoking religious processional attire and the outfits worn by carnival and circus performers. Wearing these decorative skins might mean the veiling of our identities, while at the same time invoking our potential to transform through masquerade. His works share a distinctive visual language that draws from traditional decorative arts, religious iconography, mythology, and folktales to explore the transformational possibilities of adornment.
