The Armory Show

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is pleased to announce our participation in The Armory Show 2024, with a solo presentation of new works by Hector Dionicio Mendoza in the Focus Section, Booth F4. The fair runs from Thursday, September 5, through Sunday, September 8, 2024, at the Javits Center in New York City.

The theme of this year’s Focus section, curated by Robyn Farrell, senior curator at The Kitchen, New York, commemorates the 30th anniversary of The Armory Show at The Gramercy Hotel and the namesake International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913 at New York City's 69th Regiment Armory. The artists selected by Farrell evoke the fair’s inaugural experimental spirit and reflect on these avant-garde histories while probing the radical strategies and poetic interventions of interdisciplinary forms and cultural exchange.

Taking inspiration from oral histories, ethnobotany, and personal experiences learned from his grandfather’s practice as a fifth-generation curandero (shaman), Hector Dionicio Mendoza’s work immerses viewers into a world evocative of Magical Realism. Mendoza’s installation at The Armory Show includes four new abstract figurative sculptures and wall-based works that explore themes of migration, flight, memory, identity, myth, resilience, healing, and self-actualization. His subjects are influenced by individuals and timeless virtues that have inspired him throughout his life. The sculptures don feathers at different stages of evolution, with figures turning and twisting in flight or reaching for the heavens. As a metaphor for flight and learning to fly, the feather offers a contemporary nod to its use as a venerated material in the histories of Indigenous, pre-Columbian, and Mexican art, in addition to the sacred feather rituals performed to cleanse and heal our environments.

Mendoza’s connections to immigrant labor and kinship with nature further embodies narratives expressed in the work through its materials, forms, and subject matter. He utilizes materials associated with the natural world—such as earth, tree bark, flora, and feathers; materials related to labor—such as corrugated cardboard, cement, glass, and cinderblocks; and quotidian found and recycled objects. In addressing the many uncertainties and complexities of migration, Mendoza manages a poetic flux between the familiar and the awe-inspiring with his ability to evoke weight, emotion, struggle, and hope. At once fraught with socio-political realities and a world of possibilities, Mendoza’s sculptures catalyze stories in which metaphors take flight and inspire viewers to enter into a space where everyone can share their struggles and overcome challenges.

Hector Dionicio Mendoza (b.1969, Uruapan, Michoacan, MX) lives in Salinas, CA, and holds an MFA from the Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT, and a BFA from California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA. He is an Associate Professor of Sculpture and Installation in the Visual and Public Art Department at California State University Monterey Bay. Mendoza has exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and Mexico, and his work was a highlight of the California Biennial 2022 at the Orange County Museum of Art, in Costa Mesa, CA. This fall, he will present a solo exhibition at the Boise Museum of Art. He is the recipient of the 2022 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant; other awards include the Fleishhacker Foundation’s Eureka Fellowship (2004), Kunst Now (2005) in Berlin, and Eco-Conciente (2007) in Mexico City. He has participated in artist residencies in Europe, including a six-month residency at KunstFutur in Switzerland (2000), The Bossard Project in Berlin (2001), Casa Santos in Barcelona (2002), and The Putney Arts Center in London (2003). Mendoza was awarded the prestigious Lucas Artist Residency (2015) at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA. In 2021, working together with the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and the Department of Latinx Studies, Mendoza helped to create and fund the inaugural Mariposa Prize, named after his work “Mariposa/Butterfly,” which entered the museum’s collection that year. Mendoza’s work resides in prominent collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Mt. Holyoke Museum of Art, MA; The Bunker/Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Palm Beach, FL; The Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; and OZ Art NWA, Bentonville, AR, among other public and private collections.

Media Contact: Brianna Bakke, Director | mobile: 1.323.448.0147 | email: gallery@luisdejesus.com

LOCATION

Javits Center

Crystal Palace Entrance

429 11th Avenue

New York, NY 1001

DATE & TIMES

VIP AND PRESS PREVIEW

Thursday, September 5, 11 AM - 7 PM

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Friday, September 6, 11 AM - 7 PM

Saturday, September 7, 11 AM - 7 PM

Sunday, September 8, 11 AM - 6 PM