Margarita Cabrera: “Security” ... “Seguridad” ...“Seguridad”
“Control” ... “Control” ... “Control”
“Safety” ... “Protección” ... “Protección”
”Power” ... “Poder” ... “Poder“

For her debut with the gallery, Cabrera’s exhibition will present selected sculptures and works on paper from three ongoing series. Crucial topics surrounding personhood, citizenship, and the right to exist are expressed with gestures of beauty and humor, invoking the complexity of the wrought U.S. immigration system. In her presentation of these three bodies of work, Margarita Cabrera’s ingenuity, honesty, and razor sharp wit stands on the crest of a rapidly unfolding transcultural conversation.

In the Main Gallery, Space in Between features hand-embroidered sculptures made from upcycled Border Patrol uniforms and traditional Mexican terra cotta planter pots. Created in collaboration with Mexican immigrants, traditional embroidery techniques tell the border crossing stories in a craft language historically used in Otomi indigenous communities. 

Flujo de Extracciones / Flow of Extractions refers to the extraction of natural resources from Latin American countries by the American oil and mining industries. Developed by the Aztecs, cochineal dyes extracted from insects that feed on prickly pear cactus plants create beautifully abstract, amoebic forms on paper reminiscent of figures or topographical maps. Collaged alongside colorful gouache shapes, Border Patrol uniforms appear again and act as a looming reminder of government enforcement and regulation.

In the Project Room, interactive sculptural works from Pepita Para El Loro Para Que Hable o Calle/ A nugget for the parrot to speak or be quiet, chatter to visitors and one another alike, play a complex game of telephone that mimics the transfer of stories and knowledge as it travels mouth-to-mouth across communities and borders. The legality of the exotic pet trade and its exploitation of wildlife and ecological systems tells a separate but related story of conquest, misinformation, and public discourse surrounding who and what the U.S. welcomes across its borders.