Miguel Aragón
2025 Artist Editions in Handmade Paper
STATEMENT:
Everything, you gave, features the portrait of a seated elephant facing backwards, against the rainbow of colors that commonly appear in a traditional Mexican sarape. Part of an ongoing series, this work is based on a collection of over 200 elephant figurines collected by the artist's mother. The work is a tribute to her memory, their heritage, and a means of documenting the particularities of an individual's collecting, driven by a desire to understand each object's specialness and personal significance.
From Aragón, "An elephant never forgets, so goes the saying. My mother adored this animal, and throughout her life, she collected figurines that depicted its likeness. Since her passing, I've worried that over time I'll forget her face, the sound of her voice, the warmth of her hugs. This piece is about remembering: the elephant is facing backwards because it's no longer with us; it's on to the next journey. Just as my mother has left this physical world, she now guides me through her teachings and memory. The background colors represent our heritage, México; they also represent a spectrum of emotions, and memories, moments of a lifetime compressed into color bands to represent her life, her story, her 'DNA'."
Pulp painting of seated elephant on a serape patterned background. A tribute to the artist's mother.
Pulp painting of seated elephant on a serape patterned background. A tribute to the artist's mother.
Miguel Aragón, Everything, you gave, 2025.
Stenciled linen pulp paint on pigmented cotton base sheet, 25 in x 20 inches. Edition of 14.
Stenciled pulp painting of figure laid in the street.
Stenciled pulp painting of figure laid in the street.
Miguel Aragón, Por Aquí y Por Allá (Here and There), 2025.
Stenciled linen pulp paint on cotton base sheet, 20 in x 25 inches. Edition of 4.
STATEMENT:
Violence in México (and other parts of the world) sadly continues as the title states: Por Aquí y Por Allá (Here and There). Fatalities become numbers, statistics, leaving all human compassion behind. Part of a series that reflects on the casualties near the México-USA border, it prompts the viewer to weigh the moral values that should be at the forefront of this social, economic, and political problem. The deceased depicted in this image resembles Jesus Christ with arms outstretched on the cross from the Christian religion. While the crucifixion is associated with suffering, it also represents Christ's victory over death, as he rose from the grave. Symbolically, this "cross" should bring empathy for all casualities of violence and armed conflict, in México and abroad. The inversion of the cross creates tension and reflects on how moral values are being ignored in pursuit of self-serving gains.
Miguel A. Aragón (b. Juárez, México) lives and works in New York City (USA) and Berlin (Germany); he is an Associate Professor in Printmaking at CUNY College of Staten Island. Aragón has exhibited internationally at venues including the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY; Uferhallen, Berlin, Germany and the Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists, Canada. His awards and residences include NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship; KALA Art Institute, Berkeley, CA; Zygote Press, Cleveland, OH; and Till Richter Museum, Buggenhagen, Germany. Aragón’s work has been published in A Survey of Contemporary Printmaking (Greenville, NC: Wellington B. Gray Gallery, 2012), Peenemünde Project: Geschichte wird Kunst / Imprinting History (Berlin: Edition Braus, 2017) and ¡Printing the Revolution!: The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now (Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum; Princeton: in association with Princeton University Press, 2020). His work is held in collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago; and Minneapolis Institute of Art.
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