Yolteotl: Closing Reception
June 10, 2022 @ 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Please join us for the closing reception of, ” Yolteotl” at HP Gallery.
“Yolteotl”, a series of paintings by Reno-based artists Joshua Chang and Ricardo Rubalcaba Paredes.
Yolteotl is a Nahuatl term that roughly translates to “The Heart of God”. As a philosophy, Yolteotl describes a process of rehabilitation and achieving enlightenment through creative production. Joshua Chang and Ricardo Rubalcaba Paredes’s works pursue Yolteotl while raising questions of identity, sexuality, and representation. Their works feel both familiar and mysterious as their portraits invite viewers to investigate an assortment of complexities related to our place in society.
Joshua Chang: I am a portrait artist living in Reno, Nevada. My grandma was a great watercolor artist and even though I never got to know her, I always feel connected the most to her when I’m painting. Through her, I feel my culture and an honest part of myself when creating these pieces. I hope to highlight and depict the beauty of Pan-Asian Americans honestly. To me, my subjects are the most beautiful people in the world.
Ricardo Rubalcaba Paredes: As the child of immigrants from México and a self-proclaimed member of Joteria, I feel a personal obligation to work for the equity of marginalized communities. As a result, my practice functions in tandem with ultimatums for representation and justice made by BIPOC, Immigrant, and Queer communities in response to our unrequited demands for equity in all sectors of society. Moreover, the work I produce contextualizes the intersection of Mexican (Chicano) and Queer identity and is in communication with a superior historical practice of Joteria art-making. I am an undergraduate student at the University of Nevada pursuing a BA with an emphasis in Digital Media and a minor in Latinx Studies, and in 2023 I intend to begin my Masters’s in Fine Arts.
