09/03/2021
Artist captures from my time at during their Tuesday open studio. These images feature local artist .
Jose's work is known for pushing the boundaries of the Mexican-American cultures and focuses on protesting culturally accepted traits of toxic masculinity through performance, installation, sculpture, drawings, and fashion.
Raised on the US/Mexican border in El Paso, TX, Jose comes from a conservative family. His work is a reflection of the challenges that he faced (and still endures) of being gay in a contrasting religious world.
"I protest the toxicity of machismo through the use of objects that carry a history, specifically within the Norteño culture, by deconstructing and altering them. Although new forms are created. I demonstrate the battle between the acceptance of being ma***ón and assimilating to cultural expectations."
Jose's work has been featured in several group exhibitions, a dozen or so solo exhibitions, and was the recipient of the 2018 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors $25,000 grant. This month, his solo exhibition, "The Measure of a C**k", opens at the FLXST Contemporary Art Gallery in Chicago and will run through October 24th.
You can view more of this artist's amazing work on his Insta and see full-length works at his website www.josevillalobosart.com.
I've said it once and I'll say it again: San Antonio has some really amazing artists and we need to lift them up.
