Totally Awesome

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More About

• Carolina Ponce de Leon
• Julio Cesar Morales
• Dulce Pinzon
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Visual Arts

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The 19 dementedly talented artists shepherded by curator Carolina Ponce de Leon in "No Distance Is More Awesome" come from points both north and south of the U.S./Mexico border, the "distance" in question. Local installation artist Julio Cesar Morales' series of watercolors, Undocumented Interventions, is like a horror-movie storyboard, with its depictions of people hiding in cars in order to cross the border. Some are welded into the dashboard, some are sewn into seats, and the innocent-looking illustrations, with their pastel colors and dotted lines, knock hard against the desperate reality: The images were mostly based on photographs taken by U.S. Customs. On the slightly lighter side, The Real Story of the Superheroes is a group of photos taken by New York's Dulce Pinzon, showing Mexican immigrants dressed as cartoon heroes from both sides of the border. Spider-man washes your windows, Catwoman takes care of your babies, and each photo is accompanied by the subject's hometown and the amount of money they send home every week. Like the custom-balaclava extravaganza Everybody Is Somebody's Terrorist by Andy Diaz-Hope, the images are very, very funny. The show is possessed of a fresh aesthetic and sharp perspectives on border drama, too much to fit in the gallery's usual beautiful space: For this show, the art spills into the Galería's adjoining multipurpose space, Studio 24.
Aug. 4-Sept. 29, 2007