Entre Lo Que Fue y Lo Que Es (Between What Was and What Is)

Entre Lo Que Fue y Lo Que Es (Between What Was and What Is)

Works by Batres Gilvin reflect a meditation on in-between states, where memory, identity, and the body shift between presence and absence.

Batres Gilvin, an artist collaborative in Greater Cincinnati, is comprised of Karla Batres and Bradly Gilvin, life partners who met in 2011 while studying at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. In a multiethnic partnership that joins the personal with the professional, Batres’ Mexican American heritage and Gilvin’s Southern American roots are a catalyst for complicated conversations about difference, otherness, and identity. In their Morning View, Kentucky studio located on the property of the Gilvin family farm and homestead, Batres Gilvin explores the local and global implications of immigration. Their artistic work is informed as much by larger political conversations as it is by life on the farm and daily interactions with Bradly and Karla’s immediate and extended family.

In Batres Gilvin’s artistic work art becomes life and vice versa. As a multiethnic collaborative, Batres Gilvin is a study in contradictions. Playful irreverence exists alongside unflinching solemnity. An unsparing commentary on the inequities of US immigration policy is wrapped in sparkly, kitschy imagery, providing a sugar-coated dose of truth serum, Mexican American style. In Batres Gilvin’s world, contradiction is both material and tool; it is also a reminder of the complexity of humans and the necessity of holding space for difficult conversations.

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 25 from 6-8pm

Artist Talk: (TBD) 

Image: What if He Doesn’t Like Beans?, styrofoam, ribbon, aerosol paint, glitter glue, artificial flowers, 2020, 3’x 4’