Marcus Zúñiga: Ya Veo
No Land | April 2017
Strangers Collective’s No Land art space transforms into a futuristic planetarium for its inaugural exhibition. In his solo show Ya Veo, Marcus Zúñiga incorporates cosmic imagery into new media projections and sculptures, opening windows into the universe by manipulating footage that he captures through a telescope. Mapping the constellations has helped Zúñiga trace his Mexican-American roots—and tell a story that traverses human history. Ya Veo, meaning “I see” in Spanish, is an invitation to viewers to ponder their place in the universe.
“My work is about perception of the universe,” says Zúñiga. “It’s part of a conversation that spans millennia, and can’t be resolved with a simple yes or no.” He first tuned in to this cosmic exchange as a child growing up in New Mexico. Zúñiga was born in Silver City, New Mexico and his family lived in seven different towns throughout the state during his youth. “I would win science fairs with projects about the solar system, and watch eight-hour documentaries on the chemical compositions of stars,” Zúñiga says. He was excited to learn that his Aztec ancestors were equally attracted to studying the stars. Perhaps cracking cosmological mysteries could help him understand his own heritage.
Ya Veo, Zúñiga’s first solo exhibition, represents two years of astronomical exploration. The eight works in the show include videos, photographs and new media sculptures. High quality prints will also be available for purchase. “Strangers Collective’s goal with the No Land project is to spotlight emerging artists who are ready for the next phase of their careers,” says Kyle Farrell, co-director of No Land. “Marcus showed us this rich, diverse body of work that is conceptually rigorous but also captures unbridled wonder.”
Press
“Zúñiga is part scientist and part conceptual artist, and as small as the rooms are in No Land gallery, never once did I feel that any given piece in Ya Veo did not find an adequate spatial matrix in which to glow, pulse, mystify the viewer, or move across an implied vastness in order to complete an arc of visual and metaphysical meaning. Zúñiga’s work is economical, elegant, and long on mesmerizing properties.”
-Diane Armitage, Southwest Contemporary
“Finding a means of expressing higher consciousness seems the ultimate goal of Zúñiga’s practice. In a sense, he aims to make the invisible visible. The idea seems to be that even if you cannot see patterns in the night sky, the arrangements are there, etched — as by an artist — into the fabric of the universe. ‘It’s difficult to understand our dimensional reality,’ he said. ‘To understand it through the filter of my heritage, my culture, has become an interesting dialogue.’”
-Michael Abatemarco, Pasatiempo
My contributions: Curatorial with Kyle Farrell and Alex Gill, press relations with Alex Gill
Artwork: Marcus Zúñiga