Image Credit: (first image) Jessie Burciaga, Quién Son? (Who Are They?), installation view, monotypes, ink on tracing paper, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist/ Exhibition shots from the Opening Reception of The Act of Searching, works by Jessie Burciaga. Coronado Print Room, 2024.
AUSTIN, TX — Coronado Print Room proudly presents The Act of Searching, works by Jessie Burciaga, during this year’s PrintAustin. Born between the border towns of Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, México, Burciaga works between installation, printmaking, sculpture, and assemblage to explore the disappearances of people along the U.S./Mexico border. Rather than relying on pain as a focal point, Burciaga uses it as an anchor, tethering the realm of dreams, the subconscious, and the spiritual. His print-based works are vulnerable and honest to the experiences of loss and grief, without discounting the hope for a better tomorrow.
Burciaga received his BFA from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and his MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He currently resides and works in Brownsville, Texas where he teaches printmaking at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Opening Reception
Saturday, January 20, 7-10 PM
Artist Talk
Saturday, February 10, 8 PM
Exhibition Dates
January 20 - March 2, 2024
Gallery Hours
Saturdays 12- 4 PM or by appointment
New Address
4201 S Congress Ave, Ste 323
Austin, TX
ABOUT THE ARTIST
“The disappearance of a loved one affects deeply and painfully in life for those who suffer from it. A missing person is an open-ended question. They are neither dead nor alive; it’s a spirit who won't let you sleep, who won't let you heal nor start over. The mere fact of getting back to normal life could be considered as an insult or a withdrawal. However, sometimes it's better to assume a loved one's death to avoid quitting your own life; hope can be a drugand like a drug, It can kill."
—Mother of a missing person
My work gives lost voices an identity. By embellishing these missing people's clothes, I give them a voice, and I give their families a voice. My work is about closure, and it is about reflection. Lastly, it is about the multifaceted nature of grief. There are many things unanswered about why these people go missing. These clothes represent a fragmented portrait, an extension of their identity and humanity, who are lost and yearning to be found. The use of monotypes clothing and installations stitches the ideas of hope, grief, and identity.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Paloma Mayorga (b. 1989, Austin, TX) is a Mexican American independent curator and interdisciplinary artist often using her own body as medium to explore movement and place in relation to landscape and ancestral uses of plants.
Mayorga’s curatorial and administrative work has led her to work with organizations like Serie Project, Mexic-Arte Museum, PrintAustin, Big Medium, and currently she acts as Curator and Exhibitions Coordinator for Coronado Print Room.
She earned a BA in Painting from the Sarofim School of Fine Arts at Southwestern University, and has gone on to exhibit her work across Texas and nationally. Mayorga has received the Emerging Artist Award from the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, Best Visual Artist by the Austin Chronicle Reader’s Poll, and Southwestern University’s 18 Under 40 Award.