Andy Medina at Estrella Gallery

Artist: Andy Medina

Exhibition title: Mitla

Venue: Estrella Gallery, New York, US

Date: September 29 – November, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Estrella Gallery, New York

Mitla, presented at Estrella Gallery, is a sixteen-painting exhibition by Andy Medina. The show runs in three parts. Part Three opens on September 22, 2022.

The paintings transliterate the stone frets of Mitla and hang on and around a metal frame based on the cruciform tomb found in the ruins of Mitla.

Mitla, a ruin complex in Oaxaca, was once the Zapotec culture’s most important site. It was a thriving religious and commercial center until the Spanish arrived in 1521 and dismantled it, using its stones to create the cathedral of San Pablo and the cathedral of Oaxaca. Mitla’s singularity is its outstanding geometric fretwork, which covers the walls of the complex.

The large-scale geometric abstractions painted in acrylic and spray paint overtake the gallery. They are visually striking, employing Medina’s distinct palette of bold primary colors. The images harken 2000’s tribal design or purely aesthetically concerned abstractions when presented to the American viewer with no context. But when you are aware that Medina’s Mitla replicates a walk through a millennia-old tomb in Oaxaca, you realize you are participating in the impossible translation of the visual forms of a culture cut short by colonization into contemporary abstract painting.

Medina is a multidisciplinary transgender artist of indigenous descent from Oaxaca City; he often explores language and symbols, investigating their critical and experimental possibilities and questioning linguistic structures that limit our ability to make sense of the world. He often plays with lost futures and anachronisms through the visual juxtaposition of pre-Columbian symbols and contemporary culture. Medina asks the viewer, “What is?” and “What could have been?”

– Marco Estrella

Andy Medina (b. 1993, Oaxaca City, Mexico) is a multidisciplinary artist working between Oaxaca City and Mexico City. He graduated from Escuela Nacional Pintura, Escultura y Grabado, La Esmeralda in 2016. Medina’s solo exhibitions include jQuien es analfabeta ahora?, MUAC en la ciudad, CDMX, Mexico (2021), Chicanoxtlan, Salon Silicon, CDM, Mexico (2020) Superarme, Galeria Galeria. CDMX, Mexico ( 2020) Subversion-es, Museo Legislativo, Sentimientos de la naciOn, CDMX, Mexico (2019), Index, LadrOn galeria, CDMX, Mexico (2018) Manual cOdice vial, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca, Mexico (2018) Santuario/Rendir Tributo, Bikini Wax EPS, CDMX (2017)

Estrella Gallery would like to thank our collaborators, Lila Zinner, Lena Terese Meginsky, Felipe Pagan, Max Thorner, Joseph Wagner, Oscar Mooney, Nell Dreyfus, Maya Dickson, Leon Lister, Echo Seireeni, Jayne Miller, for making this project possible. Thank you, Luis Corzo, for documenting this Monumental project. Thank you, Felix Burrichter, for your constancy and belief in Mitla. Thank you, Gaby Cepeda, for writing an excellent English language primer on Andy Medina’s work. Thank you, Axelle Dechellete, for designing the first part of Mitla.

Andy Medina, Mitla, 2022, exhibition view, Estrella Gallery, New York

Andy Medina, Orange marcha zapoteca, 2022, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 45 x 98 in.

Andy Medina, Yellow Zapotec March, 2022, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 45 x 98 in.

Andy Medina, Blue zapotec march, 2022, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 45 x 98 in.

Andy Medina, Greca blue sky, 2022, Spray paint on canvas, 23x 118in.

Andy Medina, Greca blue sky, 2022, Spray paint on canvas, 23x 118 in.

Andy Medina, Marea azul, 2022, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 27.5 x 102 in.

Andy Medina, Twin greca caracol, 2022, Spray paint on canvas, 23 x 82 in.

Andy Medina, Twin Blue Greca, 2022, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 37 x 80 in.

Andy Medina, “S” Green Greca No. 1, 2022, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 59 x 20 in.

Andy Medina, “S” Orange Greca No 1, 2022, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 59 x 20 in.

Andy Medina, Greca Caracol Azul, Frizo No. 1, 2022, Spray paint on canvas, 118 x 8 in.

Andy Medina, Greca Caracol Azul, Frizo No. 2, 2022, Spray paint on canvas, 118 x 8 in.

Andy Medina, Greca Caracol Azul, Frizo No. 3, 2022, Spray paint on canvas, 118 x 8 in.

Andy Medina, Greca Escalonada Azul, Frizo No. 1, 2022, Spray paint on canvas, 117 x 8 in.

Andy Medina, Greca Escalonada Azul, Frizo No. 4, 2022, Spray paint on canvas, 117 x 8 in.

Andy Medina, Greca Escalonada Azul, Frizo No. 5, 2022, Spray paint on canvas, 118 x 8 in.