Darwin Cruz

Sabanilla, Chiapas, México, 1990.

Darwin Cruz studied at the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas (UNICACH).

His works are a visual memory of the oral tradition that he has heard and remembered throughout his life. He gives relevance to the knowledge that for generations has been preserved through dialogue and interaction with his people, thus transformed into the main elements and characters that make up his pictorial work. His primary medium is oil painting.

Mainly a painter, Cruz confronts and exposes the repressed realities of the rural villages, which are normalized through the well-known processes of government (and colonizing) institutions.

Identity, for Darwin, emerges as a reflection from the outside world. His art is, for him, a bridge between those worlds, by way of his nostalgia for his own past. He makes images that connect with his own sense of belonging, the idyllic childhood in rural communities, the family and meals together, cornfields, domestic animals, his grandmother’s curing powers, as well as poverty’s lacks, the imposition of Spanish and the mother tongue of Ch’ol, racism, the effects of time on his people…

His love and dedication to art has unfolded in such a way that he has been able to show his work individually and collectively, locally and nationally. Darwin Cruz is the youngest talent featured in Mirar el Chiapas, artistas contemporáneos, a compendium of important Chiapanec artists.

Exhibitions

• Spoxil Ch’ulelal (Medicine of the soul), multidisciplinary exhibition, Centro médico siglo XXI, Mexico City, 2019.
• Dialogues in colors, exhibition with Juan Chawuk, Galería MUY, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2018.
• Contemporary Meeting of Visual Arts, Villahermosa, Tabasco, 2019.
• Memories, La Enseñanza Museum, City House. San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2018.
• Destidos, Luis Alaminos Gallery, Cultural Centre, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, 2017.
• Looking in Chiapas, Contemporary Visual Artists, Senate of the Republic, Mexico City, 2016.
• Spirits, El Jaguar Awakened Art Gallery, Villahermosa, Tabasco, 2016.
• Legends and traditions, Na Bolom Museum, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2016. 
• Innocence and identities, Galería MUY, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2016.
• The short distance, artists from Baja California and Chiapas, Museum of the City, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, 2016.
• Claro Oscuro, La Enseñanza Museum, City House, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, 2016.
• We want to tell you a story, El Jaguar Despertado Gallery, Villahermosa Tabasco, Mexico, 2015.
• Madonnari Festival, Art on the floor, Bonbajel Mayaetik AC, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2015.

Awards

• Jaguarte, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2019.