San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Chiapas, México
Two master artists, both technically skilled in figurative realism, engage in dialogue as they present recent works at the Galería MUY. Juan Chawuk and Darwin Cruz are originally from Las Margaritas and Sabanilla, respectively. Both boldly mix neo-Maya/Indigenous symbologies with neo-Mexicanidad, creating artworks that delight with their coloration and fascinate through their exploration of themes related to the culture and nature of the Indigenous peoples of Chiapas.
Cruz’s images shine with brightness from a mysterious jungle darkness, evoking both visual and lived impressions of this gifted young artist. He delves deeper into his already resonant subject — rural childhood — admiring its innocence and closeness to nature, while also lamenting today’s environmental crisis. Cruz expands this repertoire by portraying the Lacandon-Maya people, for instance: the group of all Chiapanecan Mayas most closely connected to pre-capitalist life and holistic ecological thinking.
Chawuk, a kind of Caravaggio of Chiapanecan visual culture, mocks and mourns with transgressive wit. His exuberant brushstrokes scatter the rays of color from the intense midday sun of the Chiapas highlands. His ease with representing the human body is legendary, and his blend of sociopolitical and personal elements in imaginative, surprising, and honest compositions hints at 21st-century legends.
In Dialogue in Color, resonant themes are explored such as the pre- and post-self-aware body, and culture politicized especially due to multiculturalism in our globalized era. The artists alternate between two key roles of the contemporary Maya artist: to represent their reality (for non-Maya audiences) and to reflect it (for internal audiences). All of this is up for debate—Chawuk takes on the role of the Maya artist representing his reality, while Darwin focuses on reflecting for his people their dreams of that reality.
The Galería MUY anticipates dialogues among audiences as well as between artists. Come reflect and enjoy!
Juan Chawuk writes:
“The brush trembles and color dares to touch the depths: from intimate journeys to the most socially evident ones, how can we feel the universe through a deep breath? Or how to stop those who have pierced our lives with scrutiny and fixed stances so alien to ours? How do we piece together our work through dialogue, a gaze, or many actions? Or how can we love one another without the prejudices and impositions of flags that foster borders? And like the sea, or the jungle in its ebb and flow, we regenerate, we integrate, we grow roots and purify ourselves by simply living that breath. I am Maya, ceiba tree, sea, and skin of time.”
Darwin Cruz writes:
Amid the warp of the canvases and the bristles of the brushes lies the space where Darwin chose to capture, through painting, the collective memory of his people as well as the perspective of his environment. The magic of his work lies in the intensity of the colors and the skill of his brushstrokes, which bring the representations to life and meaning before the viewer’s eyes. The painter’s palette is as rich as the tradition that runs through his veins, and his intent is to rescue from oblivion those legends, myths, tales, and other narratives that have yet to be recorded. Darwin captures the nostalgia of a fleeting childhood, often accompanied by a smoking flame that, like clock hands, reminds us that time and life are constantly being consumed. It is there that his paintings become windows to appreciate metaphorical landscapes that, through their elements, evoke rural life based on otherness; and to represent an Indigenous person, it is enough to suggest the skin color shared with the earth they cultivate daily.
Juan Chawuk (born 1971), a Tojolabal-speaking artist, works in painting, sculpture, photography, and performance. His multimedia work has been exhibited in numerous group and solo shows in Mexico, Paris, Chicago, St. Louis, and many cultural centers around the world.
Darwin Cruz (born 1990), a Ch’ol-speaking artist and graduate of the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas (UNICACH), has developed a consistent practice mainly in painting, with solo and group exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, and Europe.
At Galería MUY, an art space in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
March–April, 2019
Artworks
Blue past future | Juan Chawuk
Acrylic on canvas
70 x 70 cm
2019
“I see my younger self when I look into my future. The moons, with their shades in life, give me the certainty that each color speaks to me, and I experience memories through other forms that float in the imagination.”
Love | Darwin Cruz
Oil on canvas
140 x 140 cm
2019
“A child embraces a turkey—it’s a demonstration of love for culture, manifested in the figure of a guajolote, a symbol and witness of our history. We must become aware in order to rescue the legacy of our ancestors in the face of the inevitable.”
Looks that come together | Juan Chawuk
Acrylic on canvas
140 x 140 cm
2019
“We are coming together around a shared cause, a culture with productive contributions, and as we look each other in the eyes, we feel a sense of certainty. In the whirlwind of energies, we are at the center—we touch our fragments to shape and mold ourselves with empathy and goodwill.”
The good luck charm | Darwin Cruz
Óleo sobre tela
70 x 70 cm
2019
“Class struggle, raw fragility, vulnerability, and the search for some measure of protection. One hides beneath the fragility of a leaf in the face of the approaching devastation. It is the void of protective resources, represented in the humility of a single leaf. With no armor, faith turns to belief in a good luck charm, embodied in the delicacy of a white butterfly.”
Urgent coordinates | Juan Chawuk
Acrylic on canvas
617 x 225 cm
2019
“And the sea trembles in concerts of energy, time flies by taking notes—cover me with flags to strengthen human triumphs, so the limits of the infinite may be felt in every act of contemplation.”
Kin (Sun) | Juan Chawuk
Oil on canvas
70 x 70 cm
2018
“Representation of the cycle—birth, death, and resurrection. It is eternity symbolized by the color yellow, the continuity and progression of the sun across the sky.”
Stigma and fusion | Juan Chawuk
Acrylic on canvas
90 x 100 cm
2019
“Stop! Enough! Don’t set fire to my forest by mutilating freedoms—don’t touch the intimacy of the jungle on my skin. Let me wear that rainbow-ribboned hat without piercing me with limiting concepts or beliefs.”
Sunrise | Darwin Cruz
Oil on canvas
58 x 46 cm
2019
“The Maya believed in life after death. A sacred heart was divided into several parts, and one of them would reintegrate into living beings. The heart is part of Maya iconography. Human sacrifices were acts of faith toward the gods, who were nourished by blood and the heart. This artwork evokes the idea of birth—the first light of dawn that gives rise to life, the resurrection after the darkness of the underworld.”
Cosmic relationships | Juan Chawuk
Acrylic on canvas
140 x 140 cm
2019
“We are more than flags, we are more than nakedness, we are more than bodies, we are more than bodily encounters. Perhaps vultures fly around us, wanting to see us fall, and they fall into prejudices, birds capable of speaking, murmuring their own memory. Among clouds of triumphs, the moon accompanies us in the cosmic waltz.”
The essence of creation | Darwin Cruz
Oil on canvas
37 x 54 cm
2019
“He is the artist who paints scenes from his imagination. He creates wonders through color. The act of painting is noble.”
Hideout of Light | Juan Chawuk
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 60 cm
2019
“Anointed by nature, if I accept allowing my roots to connect me to you, anointed by sacred ceibas, if my fruits are sacred, then I am a tree of earth and sky, I am the heartbeat of eternity in every moment I smile, I am the hiding place of light.”
Spiritual enlightenment | Darwin Cruz
Oil on canvas
57 x 37 cm
2019
“Incense signifies enlightenment, it is an element that opens the path. The artwork portrays the ritual of fire; its purpose is to worship and give thanks to the gods, it is communication with ancestors and other spiritual forces.”
Cosmic fertilization | Juan Chawuk
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 180 cm
2019
“In a single breath, I feel the universe. I close my eyes, I become both the everything and the nothing. Time is only a mark on my skin, but it is not. Perhaps I am a stone from ancient secrets, I connect with the roots of every tree that has lived, lives, or will live. I feel like a bridge for the eternal moment to pass through.”
Reciprocity over all barriers | Darwin Cruz
Oil on canvas
41 x 58 cm
2019
“Unity is strength, difficult environments and the confrontation of danger. They are two children seeking shelter in a transition against the harshness of time. Situations that come and go, they are in expectation of an improvement. It symbolizes fraternity, reinforcement, and solidarity.”