Born in Ventura, California and currently based in both Miami Beach, Florida and New York City, artist José Delgado Zúñiga received his BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2015 and his MFA in Painting from Columbia University in 2017. His work conveys “a rhythm of the muralist sensibility” in its fusion of colour and form, symbol and abstraction. While he may be seen as exploring themes involving Chicano identity, his work ultimately lies somewhere beyond the confines of a single idea or subject matter:
“I believe that nothing exists independently or in a vacuum; everything in this present moment results from previous and past relationships and phenomena. The notions within my paintings express the internal and external trauma and politics that occur inward and everywhere. The symbols inform my Mexican American identity. Using the process of free association in both content and form as a strategy to recall moments and memories. Using languages of abstraction and representational painting as textures to express distortions of perception placed by oppression. As a result, my compositions are reaching for enlightenment that can make sense of the mutating skeleton of boundaries; they are always splitting, accumulative, fractured, connected, twisting, and stacked.”
Check out more images from “Into Me See” below. All images courtesy of Central Fine.