This text was submitted as a proposal to the apexart NYC25 Open Call
Obsesión! Labor as Pleasure, examines the work of US-based Latinx artists working across media as they engage, re-define and transgress notions of labor, and pleasure.
This exhibition is rooted in the artists’ commitment to labor-intensive practices and an overall obsession with material exploration and painstakingly detail-oriented processes. For these artists, labor becomes a contemplative space where pleasure is not merely an indulgence but a profound way of understanding and navigating the complexities of Latinx identities through themes of migration, feminism, environmentalism and critical race theory. Pleasure, here, is not only the outcome of their labor but also the framework through which these artists view the world—an essential tool for self-care, resistance, and survival.
By focusing on repetitive, time-intensive actions, these artists invite viewers to consider the joy, care, and discovery that arises from their artistic labor. Echoing adrienne maree brown’s concept of "pleasure activism," the exhibition acknowledges pleasure as a necessary part of social justice, encouraging a radical redefinition of activism that centers joy and the well-being of communities. Through this lens, the exhibition highlights the vital role of pleasure in shaping and sustaining efforts to uplift society while offering a space for contemplation and transformation, rooted in the powerful fusion of labor and joy.
Maria Yolanda Liebana's material labor in which she meticulously applies gemstones and other small elements to compose larger paintings, invites viewers into the subversive realm of fem pleasure. Lina Puerta’s textile works create an overall abstraction that dizzies the eye towards ecstasy by meticulously combining found objects. Jessica Lagunas navigates the corridors of history and indigenous legacies by incorporating found materials from nature, like feathers, onto textiles. Justin Favela transforms colorful tissue paper through a process inspired by piñata-making, to create impressionistic scenes pulled from history and Latinx culture. For Raul De Lara, pleasure is derived from capturing nuanced details with surgical accuracy. His hand carved wood sculptures blend craft, and fantasy, queering the genre and inviting delight. Daniela Gomez Paz explores the body as a home and evolving landscape of memories, using textiles as both support and binder to weave together autobiographical, social, and familial norms of femininity. Gloria Martinez Granados’s work is inspired by her experience growing up undocumented and from the textiles of her native Mexico. She transforms fruit packaging with embroidery threads into ghostly images of the food workers invisibilized by colonization. Juan Hinojosa uses found objects and printed media to create collage-drawings that intimately challenge greed, obsessive consumption, and the social stratification of American culture.
Obsesión! Labor as Pleasure is an invitation to become immersed in the narratives of these artists, where labor, and repetition become conduits for activism, pleasure, and artistic expression. They take the work of hand-stitching, weaving, repetitive mark-making, and arduous manipulation of materials often associated with domesticity, women’s work and immigrant labor into the terrain of pure satisfaction- reminding us that deep within the labor of their hands exists a fountain of delight, justice and the future itself.
Obsesión! Labor as Pleasure, examines the work of US-based Latinx artists working across media as they engage, re-define and transgress notions of labor, and pleasure.
This exhibition is rooted in the artists’ commitment to labor-intensive practices and an overall obsession with material exploration and painstakingly detail-oriented processes. For these artists, labor becomes a contemplative space where pleasure is not merely an indulgence but a profound way of understanding and navigating the complexities of Latinx identities through themes of migration, feminism, environmentalism and critical race theory. Pleasure, here, is not only the outcome of their labor but also the framework through which these artists view the world—an essential tool for self-care, resistance, and survival.
By focusing on repetitive, time-intensive actions, these artists invite viewers to consider the joy, care, and discovery that arises from their artistic labor. Echoing adrienne maree brown’s concept of "pleasure activism," the exhibition acknowledges pleasure as a necessary part of social justice, encouraging a radical redefinition of activism that centers joy and the well-being of communities. Through this lens, the exhibition highlights the vital role of pleasure in shaping and sustaining efforts to uplift society while offering a space for contemplation and transformation, rooted in the powerful fusion of labor and joy.
Maria Yolanda Liebana's material labor in which she meticulously applies gemstones and other small elements to compose larger paintings, invites viewers into the subversive realm of fem pleasure. Lina Puerta’s textile works create an overall abstraction that dizzies the eye towards ecstasy by meticulously combining found objects. Jessica Lagunas navigates the corridors of history and indigenous legacies by incorporating found materials from nature, like feathers, onto textiles. Justin Favela transforms colorful tissue paper through a process inspired by piñata-making, to create impressionistic scenes pulled from history and Latinx culture. For Raul De Lara, pleasure is derived from capturing nuanced details with surgical accuracy. His hand carved wood sculptures blend craft, and fantasy, queering the genre and inviting delight. Daniela Gomez Paz explores the body as a home and evolving landscape of memories, using textiles as both support and binder to weave together autobiographical, social, and familial norms of femininity. Gloria Martinez Granados’s work is inspired by her experience growing up undocumented and from the textiles of her native Mexico. She transforms fruit packaging with embroidery threads into ghostly images of the food workers invisibilized by colonization. Juan Hinojosa uses found objects and printed media to create collage-drawings that intimately challenge greed, obsessive consumption, and the social stratification of American culture.
Obsesión! Labor as Pleasure is an invitation to become immersed in the narratives of these artists, where labor, and repetition become conduits for activism, pleasure, and artistic expression. They take the work of hand-stitching, weaving, repetitive mark-making, and arduous manipulation of materials often associated with domesticity, women’s work and immigrant labor into the terrain of pure satisfaction- reminding us that deep within the labor of their hands exists a fountain of delight, justice and the future itself.
Francisco Donoso is a transnational artist and curator based in NYC. He?s interested in practices that engage liberatory notions of self and society.
apexart’s program supporters past and present include the National Endowment for the Arts, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Kettering Family Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, The Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Spencer Brownstone, the Kenneth A. Cowin Foundation, Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., William Talbott Hillman Foundation/Affirmation Arts Fund, the Fifth Floor Foundation, the Consulate General of Israel in New York, The Puffin Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and administered by LMCC, funds from NYSCA Electronic Media/Film in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.