Scarlet Sage Artwork

This piece is part of my project created during a residency at Casa Lü, Mexico City, in December 2023. Black velvet paintings gained wild popularity in rural America in the late 20th century, with Ciudad Juaréz in Mexico as the major center of production. Typically associated with unforgivingly bad taste, they are often seen as the ultimate kitsch and never taken seriously by the fine art world. I wanted to play with the unique, captivating characteristics of the material, while reflecting on the idea of existing in spaces that challenge conventional understanding, where identity and the perception of reality are in flux or outside the norms.