Lost, Found, and Reconstructed
Ashley Mireles & Jose Villalobos

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

In "LOST, FOUND, AND RECONSTRUCTED" Ashley Mireles and Jose Villalobos blend traditions and culture with historical feminine and masculine ideologies to create an installation focusing on the transformative outcome of their artistic practices. From the grinding of nopales and books, including Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons, A Father’s Grace and Sports Journey, and Webster’s Spanish-English Dictionary, the artists explore a practice of paper-making that will activate the gallery space with 150 sheets of handmade paper connected to create 200-foot stream, reminiscent of papel picado, that is stitched together with men and women’s garments. Throughout the exhibit, Mireles and Villalobos allow the viewer to take a closer look at the tools created to complete the process. Sieves formed with pantyhose and wire hangers are presented alongside a split-screen video depicting the artists removing conventional men and women’s clothing as a means of transformation, as well all embossing buttons and embroidery found throughout their own cultural traditions that have been sourced as tools for the exhibition.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ashley Mireles is a community-based interdisciplinary artist creating works based on her environment and concerns. Better known for a figurative practice, Ashley produces drawings, prints, and murals that embody narratives of past, present, and future. Employing both homage and social critique, along with humor, she uses an illustrative style to explore cultural issues, gender roles, and the human condition. Ashley was recently named as an official artist for City of San Antonio (Public Art San Antonio) and is a co-director of La Printeria, a nonprofit printmaking organization specializing in producing fine art prints for the artist community while training youths in the serigraph process. Ashley continues to focus her efforts on community access by regularly leading creative workshops and other educational programming for regional arts institutions and as a founding member of Creative Women’s Alliance, formed to create and support professional arts opportunities for women of color within the San Antonio arts community.

Jose Villalobos juxtaposes distress with a feeling of comfort deriving from patriarchal and religious social structures which marginalize gay identity. Using found objects, he manipulates material through the context of self-identity as he examines gender roles within familial culture . He demonstrates that dismantling traditional modes of masculine identity centerers around an interstitial space where materiality softens the virility. In his work Villalobos protests the toxicity of machismo through the use of objects, specifically within the norteño culture, that carry a history by deconstructing and altering them. Although new forms are created he demonstrates the battle between the acceptance being a maricón and assimilating to the cultural expectations.Villalobos received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2016 and was awarded the Artist Lab Fellowship Grant the same year.
Villalobos has exhibited and performedinternationally with a forthcoming performance at the McNay Art Museum. His work has been featured innational and regional publications including Mitú , Remezcla, Huffington Post, Out in SA Magazine, SA Current, and San Antonio Express-News.
about Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery
Established in 2009, Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery has been committed to supporting local
contemporary artists in the South Texas area. Clamp Light functions as both a studio space for resident artists and a gallery space for monthly exhibitions. Our resident artists work in a variety of media including installation, sculpture, painting, photography, performance and new media.