Innocences and identities, Works of the Hombres Rayo collective

The Galería MUY is pleased to present the artistic project “Innocences and Identities,” collectively created by “Hombres Rayo”: five painters of Maya descent from rural Chiapas communities.
The members of the collective not only share visions rooted in Maya cosmovision and the critical socio-political and ecological realities of the Highlands and Cañadas-Selva regions of Chiapas—they also share brushstrokes: they have collectivized the very creation of their works, sometimes intervening directly in each other’s paintings.

In various cultures of Mesoamerica and Aridoamerica, lightning is seen as a sacred symbol, a celestial energy that emanates from the divine to fertilize earth and sky through rain. (From an interview with Juan Chawuk)

Juan Chawuk (Las Margaritas, 1971), painter and performance artist, is the guiding master behind this collective project. He studied art at the San Carlos Academy, and his current practice includes painting, performance, photography, and sculptural installation. This project—and now exhibition—was born in Chawuk’s studio, where young artists eager to paint gather and share experiences in art and life through bohemian artistic gatherings. His dedication to teaching is evident in how he shares creative freedom and experimentation. Chawuk exhibits in Mexico, the United States, and Europe.

Darwin Cruz (Sabanilla, 1990), an emerging artist of Ch’ol descent, trained in visual arts at UNICACH in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Active in the art scenes of Tuxtla and San Cristóbal, he has gained strong recognition through various exhibitions and in the book Mirar en Chiapas: Contemporary Artists. Darwin explores nostalgia and his deep admiration for community life and the millenary culture of his people.

Joel Pérez (Ocosingo, 1992), a bold painter and intellectual of Tseltal origin, brings a profound ecological consciousness to his work. He freely explores the personal and cultural meanings of life in the Cañadas and the jungle. He grew up in a locally multicultural environment in the community of Francisco Villa. He studied anthropology at UNACH in San Cristóbal and has exhibited his art in Chiapas and other parts of Mexico.

Carlos de la Cruz (San Cristóbal de Las Casas, 1989), painter, draftsman, and poet, is the son of parents of Zinacantec descent. He is currently a primary school teacher in the municipality of Cancuc. Working in one of the most impoverished municipalities, his work offers a vision of childhood where innocence intertwines with early family and social responsibilities. His art is a personal and social exploration of cosmovision.

Manuel Roblero, or Yoco (Motozintla, 1997), is a self-taught emerging artist passionate about painting. He is inspired by the Chiapas school of figurative art combined with media arts. A young man from the Mocho and Mam peoples, Roblero teaches visual arts at the Motozintla cultural center and promotes cultural engagement among youth facing addiction.

Innocences and Identities—the plural not only marks a group of five individuals but also announces the wide range of multicultural identities being constructed—and reexamined—by contemporary Maya artists. They are all urban/rural in different ways. The ever-present ecological concern is defended from within the Indigenous being, yet also threatened as Indigenous peoples face the forces of neocolonialism.

Mexican identity? Indigenous identity? “Each artist responds with their own fusion of these identities, which is symbolized in their works,” they comment.
The uniformity of globalization is met with self-affirmation and defiance.

Each of the five artists uses Maya symbology with varying degrees of iconophilia and iconoclasm. The nahual animal, for example, appears with reverence—and reappears, diminished, in the form of mass-market artisanal figures for tourists.

Magical realism reflects the way Latin American cultures represent their own realities based on their cultural heritage with mythic and supernatural content. Energy is a principle of being, and the current work of these Maya artists reflects the belief that all things in the world possess energy. In this broad sense, their art engages with reality from the perspective of the magical-sacred.

But childhood, in the work of all the Hombres Rayo, emerges as the central symbol for understanding personal, Indigenous-universal identities.
“Who are you?”
Intuitively, each person returns to the memory of their childhood.

There we find nostalgia, trauma, and the honesty revealed in natural and emotional nakedness. Childhood also represents vulnerability. Is the child a victim of injustice or a participant in their culture? There is no easy answer.
But above all, childhood is the beginning—innocent—of the creative and ever-renewing construction of identity.

Childhood is speaking without words, running barefoot, sketching the sky.
—Carlos de la Cruz