Welcome to the Wolf Martinez Gallery blog! We're thrilled to feature an interview with the inspiring artist, Israel Haros Lopez. With firsthand experience of migration and life as a Mexican American, Israel brings a unique perspective to his work as a mentor, educator, and activist. Despite facing academic challenges in high school, Israel's determination led him to earn degrees in English Literature and Chicano Studies from UC Berkeley, followed by an MFA in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts. His interdisciplinary approach to art includes poetry, performance, music, visual art, and video making, all of which explore the layered realities of border politics, identity politics, and historical interpretation. Join us as we delve into the world of this multifaceted artist and learn more about his impactful work.
Can you tell us a little about the work you'll be adding to the upcoming "The Contemporary West" art exhibition at Wolf Martinez Gallery? What themes or ideas does your work explore, and what inspired you to create these pieces?
My current work is exploring a couple of key concepts, some of which have been at the core of what I've been working on for years and others that are more current in my practice. As a Chicano artist working primarily in drawing and painting, one of the key things for me is exploring both contemporary and ancestral iconography which deals with the personal and the political. In our D.N.A. resides our ancestral images and it's up to those that choose to fill the role of artist to extract them from the ethers. Colonization, Capitalism and all the other isms want us to believe that we are detached from these realities but through discipline, meditation, practice, prayer our knowledge and ancestral truths is accessible to us. Some of the pieces that I am currently working on involve sacred geometry as an essential tool for balance both internally and externally. The systems of oppression that surround our presence want us to live in fear, scarcity and out of balance. My work addresses these issues by immigration, ancestral memory, amnesia and re-interpretation of histories. I am currently working with Luchadores whose ancestral and contemporary narratives are tattooed on their bodies. I am creating portraits of shadow figures that speak to ancestral pain. I am becoming more invested in the human body and mural landscape, trying to see how that comes through both on a small canvas, large canvas and a public wall.
We understand that you are part of Alas de Agua Art Collective. Can you tell us more about what it entails? How does working as part of a collective differ from working as an individual artist, and what benefits does it offer? I'm the co-founder of Alas de Agua Art Collective. I am the current Art Director and hope that someone in the local community will take over this position soon because my intention with the Alas de Agua Art Collective was to empower BIPOC artists to access resources in our community. We have been historically marginalized from artistic opportunities. The Collective is about finding the means around these barriers. To use our individual and collective force to remember that we have abundance. Currently we are working on some monumental collective art pieces. We are working large-scale 6 foot by 9-foot, 9 feet by 12 feet etc, in an effort to create plans for future murals. We challenge each other by trying to figure out organically how to incorporate different stylistic approaches on a canvas. Alas de Agua Art Collective is many things to many people. For some of us , it's a place of professional and artistic development. For others, Alas de Agua, which translates to Wings of Water, is a place to hang out, sketch and paint. We are trying to fill in different artistic needs for barrio artists. We hold weekly workshops on different topics, ranging from basic art skills to grant writing, business for artists, how to prep your work for gallery and museum level shows. I started this collective because I personally experienced to a lot of barriers in the both the nonprofit art world and the for-profit art world. I am personally a prolific artist and have seen how these oppressive systems create extra hurdles for artists of color. At the end of the day, I feel like my art practice and art try to create momentum, memory and inspiration for my community. My community is represented by artists of all colors and shades, all walks of life. Ultimately, it's important for all of us inside and outside this collective to recognize our privilege and artistic abundance. I find myself trying to daily engage in community art practices and appreciate the access and power that social media has in allowing others to access my personal practice. I feel like I rarely work in the vacuum of a solo artist. All of it is a tightrope act, of balancing personal, individual art practice and community art practice, trying to create a weaving of reciprocity that fuels both me and the artist community I interact with.
Your work often addresses a multitude of historical and spiritual layered realities of border politics, identity politics, and the re-interpretation of histories. How do you incorporate these complex themes into your work, and what message do you hope to convey through your art?
First and foremost, I hope that my work sings the songs of my ancestors. Those indigenous and Mexican ancestors that were raped, tortured, hung and continued to be abused. At the end of the day, despite colonization, despite all the continued efforts to separate us from the land and ancestral truths. I pray that my work is relentless. That it speaks to the fact that we are still here, alive, abundant, creating. Indigenous Excellence, Indigenous Existence is Indigenous Resistance. As a Chicano whose ancestors are Raramuri, Huichol, Mexican and whomever crossed our path 500 years ago. I acknowledge that I am a mix of both triumph and defeat. I try to make the work speak to all the layered complexities of this. Whether painting a paletero cruising the barrio behind a mural, a contemporary sacred geometry piece exploring ancestral motifs, a family attempting to desperately cross the border in front of American and Mexican Militia. The work dances, fights, struggles, cries, prays, hopes and sings out the complicated existence of Mexicans, Latinos, Chicanos and Indigenous bodies in the Americas before, during and after this nation we currently call America. How did your relationship with the Wolf Martinez Gallery develop, and what do you appreciate most about working with this gallery?
I met Manuel and Carolyn when they attended a show, I did years ago. I immediately fell in love with their humble commitment to support Raza Artists. I appreciate both of their amazing discipline to their craft as artists while still trying to help others be honored and paid their worth. It's been such an inspirational mirror as me and my wife Isabel Ribe continue to support Artists while also maintaining our own artistic practice. I appreciate the diverse scope of the work that they show and the inspirational technical quality, along with powerful messaging present in both Manuel and Carolyn Wolf Martinez work. We need more folks doing this work the way they are doing it. Both on the gallery business side and the artistic side of things. It feels like such a blessing and perfect home for my work.
You have brought fellow Alas de Agua members from Santa Fe to visit the Wolf Martinez Gallery. How does exposure to contemporary art impact the members, and what do you hope they take away from these experiences?
I have taken other Alas de Agua Members to the gallery to get inspired by all the layers of what is happening in the space. To me it feels like such an amazing home for both up and coming artists and established artists. We need more spaces like this. I wanted to invite other artists to bear witness to the level of professionalism and the bridge between so many different worlds that the Wolf Martinez Gallery is. I hope that Alas de Agua members get to come into the space, feel their place and find that they belong not only in this gallery but in all gallery/museum spaces that they deem worthy of them. Wolf Martinez Gallery is a place where individual artists get to flip the script, because it is run by two amazing artists who have experienced the good, bad and the ugly of the art world, they treat their artist with the utmost love and respect. I want Alas de Agua Artists to come and feel how they deserve to be treated not only as Wolf Martinez Gallery, not only at Alas de Agua Art Collective, but to set that as a standard of how they should be treated in all art spaces. Too often artists are treated as a commodity and it's important to find and create spaces where our humanity, our peace, our dignity, and our spirit remains intact.
Can you tell us a little about where you're from and what brought you to New Mexico? How has your background and upbringing influenced your work as an artist and educator? I was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California. I was raised by my Mexican mother. She crossed the border over and over and worked menial jobs in the U.S. My dad is Mexican also, born and raised in Chihuahua and has worked in the United States primarily as a Mexican Fast-Food Cook. Their hard-working hands and back guide my work. My ancestors guide my work. The artwork itself is not mine. I'm just the vessel from where it comes through. I went to UC Berkeley and got a degree in English and Chicano Studies. I went to California College of the Arts and got a M.F.A. in Writing. I am a tlacuilo. I am a poet and artist. I go between both worlds. Along my poetic journey I ended up touring and traveling to New Mexico and thought I would come live here after I "retired." The creative synergy of East Los Angeles and the city of Los Angeles that never sleeps definitely drive my prolific energy. I think going through Roosevelt High School and watching how poorly we were educated definitely drives my need to help others "get educated." Our ancestral modes of education are completely opposite to western models of education. So I try to incorporate a push and pull, a balance between western modes of art education and our ancestral memory and modes of learning. Gentrification and other realities pushed me out of my barrio in Boyle Heights. I now live in Pojoaque where I am building an art studio, farm for myself and my community. I hope to inspire others to do the same, create more spaces for our folks to create and thrive.
Finally, what advice do you have for upcoming artists who are looking to develop their craft and make a name for themselves in the art world? What lessons have you learned over the years, and what wisdom can you impart to others just starting out on this journey?
For the young artists, not young in age, but young in practice. I would say that now more than ever, we have the opportunity through social media and other platforms to convey our story without compromise. Prior to this time, many of us were dependent on institutions and galleries to propel and help us tell our story. We are more empowered than ever to tell our stories however we want to tell our stories. We can then find art homes inside and outside institutions and find our kindred spirits. If you feel like you can't find a place that fits you, then you have all the power and will in this day and age to create that. Whether it's online or in person. You can find your people. You can create your vision. But it's important to really do some deep personal digging and writing around what it is that you really want to talk about. It's important to become obsessed with your practice if you want to make a life as an artist. It's important to at some point just dive deep and lose sleep inside your artist's practice and go beyond what you think you're capable of. It's important to get some good rest. It's important to find the balance between all these things, to know when it's time to burn the midnight oil and when it's time to pause and heal. The myth of the wounded artists that creates amazing art is a way that they want us to perceive ourselves as always broken. We can use our art to heal ourselves first and then help others heal.
Thank you, Israel, for sharing your inspiring story and work with us. Your dedication to exploring ancestral iconography and addressing themes of colonization, capitalism, and oppression through various art forms is truly admirable. Your involvement in Alas de Agua Art Collective and your efforts to empower BIPOC artists to access resources in the community is a testament to your commitment to creating positive change through art. We look forward to seeing your work at "The Contemporary West" art exhibition at Wolf Martinez Gallery and wish you all the best in your future endeavors.