Nery Gabriel Lemus

My work explores issues around race and family- not in the narrow sense, but in a broader sense that is ultimately about society’s role (or even responsibility) to advance human dignity. My art frequently attempts to identify parallels within cultures and question the division’s people have. I’m interested in creating art that not only functions within the context of the white box but involves society or functions in a public context- I believe this to be essential to an artist working with social issues.

Perhaps my biggest contention lies in the rationale that identity is fixed- that somehow we can fall into a category that is not susceptible to change as we encounter various cultures. That being said, I have allowed my art to become a vehicle for the documentation of a different model- a model that includes the hybrid and the initial point of conversation. I’m also interested in mining cultural signifiers that produce familiar narrative spaces as apposed to being characterized by a particular formal style.