Raúl de Nieves | Boston ICA art exhibition

Boston Art Exhibition
Institute of Contemporary Art
25 Harbor Shore Drive
Boston MA 02210

10/01/21-07/24/22

Raúl de Nieves (b. 1983 Michoacán Mexico) is a New York–based interdisciplinary artist performer and musician whose multifaceted practice ranges from stained-glass-style narrative paintings to animated performances to densely adorned figurative sculptures encrusted with bangles beads bells sequins and other homespun materials. These opulent joyful sculptures reference traditional costumes in Mexican culture and modes of dress from drag ballroom and queer club cultures while also evoking religious processional attire and the outfits worn by circus performers. All of his works share a distinctive visual language that draws from Mexican craft traditions religious iconography mythology and folktales to explore the transformational possibilities of adornment and the mutability of sexuality and identity. For the ICA de Nieves is creating a body of interconnected works rooted in memory and exploring themes of personal transformation. The Treasure House of Memory expands the artist’s inventive adaptation of iconographic traditions inherited from the past through vibrant amalgamations of form and material rendered in an energetic and accessible visual language.