Brown Foundation Gallery

August 22 - November 15, 2020

Exhibit-Connect: Leslie Moody Castro in conversation with Francis Almendárez
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
4:30PM via Zoom and Facebook Live

This exhibition is supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Texas Commission on the Arts.

Francis Almendárez
rhythm and (p)leisure

Francis Almendárez’ exhibition, rhythm and (p)leisure, is part of his ongoing investigation into the fruit and labor of working-class people, specifically of Central American and Caribbean diasporas. Almendárez’ work attempts to confront and unpack the legacy and histories of exploitation, precarity, unemployment, homelessness, dislocation, and debt specific to these diasporas. Drawing on his unique personal history as the descendant of intergenerational migrant agricultural workers, Almendárez inverts and reclaims established dialogues and negative depictions of these communities. The work brings both physical labor and cultural production into the foreground, blurring the line between work and play/leisure.

Francis Almendárez is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and educator that traverses the intersections of history, (auto)ethnography, and the arts. Using them as tools to address memory and trauma, he attempts to unpack and reconstruct identity, specifically of im/migrant, queer, working-class bodies of Central America, the Caribbean, and their diasporas. Almendárez has participated in exhibitions, screenings, and performances in the US and abroad. Recent shows including rhythm and (p)leisure, Artpace, San Antonio, TX; The Potential Wanderer, The Reading Room, Dallas, TX; Sisyphus, Ver.20.18, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan; and Voices of Our Mothers: Transcending Time and Distance, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX. He is the recipient of a Houston Artadia Award, and the Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship from Houston Center for Photography. He has also been a participant of the Artpace International Artist-in-Residence program, and the Institute of Contemporary Art Moscow Summer School. Writing on his work has been featured in publications including D Magazine, spot Magazine, Artforum, ARTNEWS, Glasstire, Y.ES Contemporary, and The Dallas Morning News among others. Almendárez was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and is currently living and working in Houston, TX where he is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Houston School of Art. He received his MFA in Fine Art (with Distinction) from Goldsmiths, University of London and BFA in Sculpture/New Genres from Otis College of Art and Design.​

francisalmendarez.com

Click here to download a PDF that includes the exhibition checklist and artist’s resume.

This exhibition was originally commissioned and produced by Artpace, San Antonio with the support of Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue.

Artist Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to all the participants, performers, collaborators, and assistants involved in this project, without whom this work would not be possible.

Participants and Performers:
The Posada family of Cantón San Cristóbal, Ciudad Barrios, San Miguel, El Salvador
The Cantillano family of Barrio Sunseri, San Pedro Sula, Honduras
Luis Reyes and the Reyes-Amador family of San Agustín, Namasigue, Choluteca, Honduras
The Rivera-Reyes family of Chinandega, Nicaragua
The tortilla makers from Mercado Guamilito, San Pedro Sula, Honduras
The street vendors along the highways of Honduras and El Salvador
The Garifuna musicians at Chuletas y Asados Elvis, San Pedro Sula, Honduras
Ty’esha Lewis, Andrés Renteria and Jacqueline Posada

Collaborators and Assistants:
Anthony Almendárez, Rosa King, Jacqueline Posada, Francis Almendárez Sr., Omar Reyes, and Pablo Marimba

Thank you Maceo Spice and Import Company for donating wooden shipping pallets and to Denise Alexander, Elaine Bradford, Reyna Collura, Joshua Ojeda, Rachelle Vasquez, and others who donated clothing for the installation at Galveston Arts Center.