Le Sol x LALO | Art Show & Artist Talk

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Le Sol x LALO present an art show and artist talk at Château Le Sol. There will be an open bar provided by LALO and tunes provided by DJ Tony Schwa. The artist talk will begin promptly at 7pm. 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Benjamin Muñoz (b. 1993) is a Dallas-based multi-disciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, installation, and monumental printmaking. Muñoz grew up in the vibrant Chicano culture of Corpus Christi, Texas, which boasts the country's largest Day of the Dead celebration, lowriders shows, and unique food culture. The middle child of artist brothers, Muñoz found his voice by reflecting on his heritage, upbringing, and current surroundings.

Muñoz attended Del Mar Community College in Corpus Christi for two years before the combination of “a young man’s arrogance” and starting his family gave him the confidence and circumstances to leave school and begin his journey as a professional artist. His first big break came when he was awarded the city’s biggest grant to create the exterior of the local arts center. In 2018, he relocated to Dallas.

His work can be found in the public collections of The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, The Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, The Blanton Museum of Art, The Mexic-Arte Museum, The National Museum of Mexican Art,  and extensive private collections, including the largest collection of Latino art in the world belonging to Gilberto Cardenas. Muñoz has been honored with 17 solo exhibitions throughout the United States and was included in Soy de Tejas, a traveling survey of Texas-born Latino artists.

He is also the co-founder of Familia Print Shop with Hugo Juarez, Dallas’ only community print center offering access to lithography, etching, woodcut, and screenprint across five presses. Muñoz currently works daily in his West Dallas studio when he is not spending time with his wife and three daughters.

Martha Elena was born in Cerritos, Mexico and raised in Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Elena attended and graduated from the University of Texas Pan American (now UTRGV) with a BFA. She now resides in Fort Worth, Texas. Elena is Multi-disciplinary and she is currently exploring and evolving in Soft Sculpture.

“The breadth of my work explores the idea of getting lost in translation. The work begins as a phrase that is converted using the Wingdings 3 font. The font does two things: One, it serves as a filter so that the viewer does not recognize the wording- only the form. It is the bridge between two sets of language and identities. I am torn in two. My native tongue is broken and limited while my English is still incomplete. Wingdings 3 helps me to create a new sense of self. One that only I can understand and manipulate. Two, it allows me to repeat motifs that can be designed and redesigned endlessly. I am interested in the visual representation of language. The content of the words influences the composition, color, and size of the work.

They are soft convoluted individual forms created out of the desperate attempt to connect. I am interested in creating forms that are abstractedly representative of connection and fundamental comprehension. The process is playful, layered and destructive. The code to translate is accessible but the design is too distorted to unravel. The arrow motif is the universal directional signal that is useless in these compositions. Often they are saggy, sad and in general a total drag. They each carry the weight of discomfort, shame and are emblematic of an incoherent rant."