Welcome Eric Garcia (RAiR 2021-22)
Eric Garcia | Albuquerque, NM
Eric J. Garcia blends history, contemporary themes and a graphic style to create politically charged art that reaches beyond aesthetics. Using sculpture, mixed media installations, murals, printmaking and his controversial political cartoons, he aims to challenge his viewers to question sources of power and the whitewashing of history. Received his BFA with a minor in Chicano studies from the University of New Mexico, Garcia went on to complete his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a core member of the printmaking collective, Instituto Gráfico de Chicago, one of the newest members of the Justseeds Cooperative and a dedicated teaching artist. Garcia has exhibited nationally and his work can be found in the collections of the National Museum of Mexican Art, the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
I am the colonized and the colonizer. I am a descendant of the Indigenous lands north of the Rio Grande conquered and colonized by Spain and then by the U.S.. Like many generations of black and brown people have done before, I enlisted in the occupying military with the hopes of opportunities within the empire. Drawing on my experiences and cultural history, I create site specific installations, murals, hand printed posters and political cartoons. By reexamining forgotten stories in an accessible and visually striking way, my work can be a tool with which to share, learn from and spark critical dialogue. Specifically, I make art to prevent historical amnesia and cultural erasure. For the past five years I have created my work in a small extra room in my apartment. I am now excited to utilize the huge studio space at RAiR, to experiment with large scale sculpture.