​​Remember Where You Are presents work by four emerging artists based in San Antonio and Chicago who use performance, sculpture, and textiles to make visible untold narratives of heritage and place, while questioning practices of exclusion and erasure. Their works are informed by layering personal and public histories to imagine new methods for navigating the world around us.

Jimmy James Canales (American, b. 1985) uses performance and sculpture to create works about exploration, myth, and technology. For this exhibition, he will complete a two-day, 27-mile trek across the city of Chicago, collecting found materials and creating documentation to be installed in the museum’s galleries. Jenelle Esparza (American, b. 1985) examines the history of cotton and labor in South Texas through photography and textiles. Her recent projects consider the intersections of Mexican and American culture and the implications of generational trauma. Melissa Leandro (American, b. 1989) fuses digital and traditional weaving techniques in fabric works that touch upon painting as well as her experience as the daughter of a domestic worker. Leandro combines colors and patterns that speak to her Costa Rican roots with abstract patterns and found furniture. Emilio Rojas (Mexican, b. 1985) uses his body to address legacies of colonialism and oppression. His current research studies Chicago’s ties to Christopher Columbus from the World’s Fair to the present day, and invites speculation and imagination of alternative histories.

Remember Where You Are draws its title from a durational work by Canales and the S.U.R.V.I.V.A.L. acronym.

Remember Where You Are is organized by DePaul Art Museum and curated by Mia Lopez, Assistant Curator. This exhibition is part of DePaul Art Museum’s Latinx Initiative, a three-year research inquiry focused on artists of Latin American heritage living and working in the United States.

Image: Jimmy James Canales, Value Life and Living, 2014