Raíces: Roots
José Arenivar-Gomez
Mario Arteaga
Camilo Gonzalez Barragán
Lorena Cruz Santiago
Terry Flores
Raymond Rodriguez
September 13 - November 23
Reception: October 25, 12 - 2
Raíces: Roots is an intimate group exhibition showcasing the work of local and regional Hispanic artists whose practices delve into themes of identity, family dynamics, cultural heritage, and personal history. Through a rich and diverse array of media including ceramics, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, installation, fiber art, and papier-mâché, the artists share personal stories and cultural traditions.
This exhibition celebrates the multifaceted experiences of the Hispanic community, offering both deeply personal narratives and broader reflections.
José Arenivar-Gomez
Artist Statement:
My work is an allegory of self-acceptance. I hand-build rabbit-like creatures, often adding long, phallic necks and/or a second pair of ears to symbolize openness and vulnerability. The rabbit serves as a symbol of the strength that comes from embracing fragility; something that is often seen as weakness but can be a source of resilience. My ceramic sculptures reflect my experiences as a gay Mexican ceramic artist, exploring themes of sexuality, desire, alienation, depression, and compassion. Each piece is an exploration of identity and self-discovery, confronting the tension between softness and strength.
My creature’s form, playful yet strange, reflects the complexities of navigating queerness and cultural identity. I work primarily with clay because of its physical qualities and its ability to transform through touch. I connect the process of handbuilding with clay to the process of building and understanding identity, as both involve layering and shaping. The process the medium goes through, from a soft material to semi-permanent objects, can be seen as an analogy to what people go through in the process of defining themselves.
Bio: Arenivar-Gomez is a Mexican ceramics artist and educator based inMetro Detroit. Born and raised in Chihuahua, Mexico, he immigrated toLas Cruces, NM, in 2007 to pursue higher education at New MexicoState University. José earned his BFA in Drawing and Ceramics in2015and his MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2018. Hiswork has been exhibited nationally in venues such as the Museum ofContemporary Art Detroit, David SalkinCreative, and Cranbrook ArtMuseum.
Mario Arteaga
Artist Statement:
Heated was a word I used a lot growing up in Chicago, one as a term of frustration, and looking back I felt I had every right to feel that way. Home is a scary idea to me and every time I speak of my home now in Ohio, I feel like I am rationalizing it, trying to convince myself that this IS Home. Running away from home and family made me reflect on the sacrifices and struggle we went through. My mother is the embodiment of strength, struggle, work, pain, and success. She has done it all for us and yet is thankless, continuing to push and provide for my sister and I. We got through it all by the skin of her teeth, but I’m torn. Did I run away, or am I building the life I wanted for myself on my own?
Through the use of color, text, concrete, steel, straight lines, and teeth, my work is a representation of my mind. My work is my efforts at building a physical version of my mental landscape. In my mind I see an empty box that I set like a stage for each memory I have. Every print is a monochromatic vision and memory. Each physical box is based on my thoughts about each of my family members. My mother, my father and I while the insides are a representation of their character; work, physical pain, peaceful emptiness, anger and vanity. With each of their mouths speaking the words above them. These are not attacks on my family, but simply my view of them and their relationship with me.
Bio:
Raised in Chicago, Mario Arteaga is a Mexican American artist who has made Northeast Ohio his home for the past 8 years. The transition from life in Downtown Chicago to finding his new home in Kent had him questioning his future. Was it the comfort of a new life he was chasing after or was he running away from the constraints of family and the construction business and hardships he grew up around.
Mario is a graduate from Kent State University with a Masters of Fine Art in jewelry, metals and enameling. With a focus on learning CAD, CNC and industrial processes he combines the work and precision of machining with traditional jewelry making techniques. Carrying over the passion and interest in machining he is currently working as a CNC operator and apprentice toolmaker while working at Kent State as an intro to jewelry, metals and enameling teacher.
Lorena Cruz
Artist Statement:
"Spiraling towards the sun for you and me" is a presentation of works inspired by my parents' gardening practice. The title references a plant's biological drive to search for the sun, and the reciprocal relationship between a gardener and a plant. My practice is driven by a desire to collaborate with my parents, and by using FaceTime as a medium my parents become image-makers as we compose photos together during calls. The show features 10 of those those FaceTime compositions mounted in ceramic frames, and cyanotype prints made directly in my parents' California garden. Live plants, my newest collaborators, will be featured in the show, as I create a support system for the plants to continue their spiraling tendencies.
Bio:
Lorena Cruz Santiago is an artist working across photography, video, and installation whose work is informed and inspired by her family's indigenous origins in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her work covers topics of migration, assimilation, labor, and more recently, collaborative image-making with her parents as a form of indigenous autonomy. Cruz Santiago holds a BFA in Photography from Sonoma State University (2016) and an MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2019). She has been an artist-in-residence at ACRE (Steuben, WI), Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists' Residency (Saugatuck, Ml), Pocoapoco Residency (Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, MX), Oak Spring Garden and Foundation Residency (Upperville, VA), Darkroom Detroit (Detroit, Ml) and Chalk Hill Residency (Healdsburg, CA). Her work has been included in shows at El Comalito Collective (Vallejo, CA), Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (Grand Rapids, Ml), Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, Ml), and with ACRE Projects in Chicago, IL. She is currently based in Detroit, Ml.
Terry Flores
Artist Statement:
My pieces explore and celebrate the beauty and richness of Hispanic/Latino culture.
These “Alebrijes” are my own interpretations and were influenced by Oaxaca's Mexican folk art. These vibrant and colorful Papier-Mâché creatures combine elements of various animals to give birth to a new, fantastical one. According to pre-Hispanic traditions, everyone is assigned a spirit animal at the moment of birth, determined by the day and year of their birth. These guiding spirits are called toná. An Alebrije is believed to protect you and ward off evil spirits.
In Greek mythology these are called chimeras.
There are 20 different species of animals representing the toná in the Zapotec calendar. Each toná represents or symbolizes a different quality: power, strength, adaptability, playfulness, resilience, wisdom, loyalty, transformation, etc.
In Aztec mythology, there was not a specific term for “dragon”; however the Aztecs revered a powerful deity with strong dragon-like characteristics called Quetzalcoatl meaning “feather serpent”. It was depicted with elements of both a bird and a reptile, and was associated with wisdom, wind, and agriculture.
In my painting “Cartuchos” I chose cala lilies as my subject. These flowers were often depicted in the paintings of the Mexican painter Diego Rivera. In Christian iconography, they represent new beginnings and divine blessing, and are often shown with the Virgin Mary holding them. I wanted to challenge myself on painting the texture of the pot and the close-up of the flowers.
Bio:
Terry is an Oberlin-based artist. She works in a variety of mediums but prefers creating three-dimensional pieces that reflect her Hispanic culture. She received her BA degree from Kent State University. She worked for 29 years as an artist at American Greetings, where she served as president and chair for the Community Outreach program for the Hispanic Resource Network. She also served on the board of directors of The Art House Inc. from 2012-2014. She has exhibited her work at the Beck Center for the Arts, Spaces Gallery, Lorain Arts Council’s Gallery 737 during FireFish Festival, and Fava. She enjoys doing community arts and Latino- inspired art.
Camilo Gonzalez Barragán
Artist Statement:
The 35mm is the essence of photography, and has become my way of understanding the world around me. With my camera, I can stop time. It has become an introspection tool to express my feelings, emotions, and internal conflicts.
Through photography I have found the means to see what others cannot see. Through my art I express the memories that weave our existence: silence, nostalgia, distance, loneliness, nature, and time. People and landscapes become impressionist paintings when exposed in the film.
We know how to observe, but do we truly see? I ask the viewer to see beyond the everyday world, and not to be indifferent to the world around us – to reflect on memory and what we have forgotten. My photographs are a way to free the spirit, enter a state of meditation, and connect again with your inner self.
Cuchas Project:
Cuchas is a series of 35mm photographs that reflects the importance of our grandmothers and explores knowledge, wisdom, and teachings. Grandmothers in Hispanic cultures are sacred beings in our families; they have given us so much throughout the generations. This project is a tribute to my grandmothers, to their grandmothers who have cared for us, who through love have taught us so many things: to walk, to paint, to be strong, to be kind, to be humble, to follow the path of goodness, to cook, to smile in the most difficult moments.
There are so many other things that we value today because, in part, many of us are who we are thanks to our grandmothers. Using the technique of multiple exposure, I wanted to metaphorically reflect how all this knowledge, wisdom, and teachings are passed down from generation to generation: grandmother, daughter, grandchild. Through black and white film, I sought to capture their importance in our lives. This work is a way of seeing and expressing gratitude to our ancestors, who should always remain in our lives.
"You are no longer physically here, but your teachings accompany me wherever I go, Grandma Carmen."
Bio:
Camilo Gonzalez Barragán, is an independent artist from Bogotá, Colombia, there studied film and TV at the UNITEC university of Colombia. He found in analog photography a means to develop his ideas and tell his stories while working on audiovisual projects. Cinema, music and painting have been his inspiration to create his own perspective of life. His work often is based on personal experiences, portrays themes such as melancholy, nostalgia, freedom, silence, loneliness, forgetfulness and his dreams. His work has been featured in various magazines and galleries including The Paradox Magazine,Classics Magazine, CAN journal, RAW and Hardy & Nance Studio, Cleveland Print Room, moCa, BAYarts. Camilo currently lives and works in Cleveland,Ohio, where he has found inspiration in the magic of its forests, streets, and people.
Raymond Rodriguez
Artist Statement:
My oil paintings explore the intersection of reality and dreams, drawing from surrealist traditions to create psychological landscapes. Working with flowing forms and contrasting colors, I investigate how color relationships can evoke specific emotions and states of being. In my work, familiar objects transform into otherworldly forms—drapery becomes fluid architecture, mirrors reveal alternate realities. The interplay between warm earth tones and cool blues creates tension that mirrors the push-and-pull of conscious and unconscious experience. These color choices aren’t arbitrary; they’re carefully orchestrated to communicate emotional truths that transcend literal representation.
Each painting becomes a meditation on perception, questioning what we see versus what we feel. Through oil paint’s rich layering possibilities, I build worlds that invite viewers to explore their own emotional responses to color, space, and the surreal—creating portals between the tangible and the imagined.
Bio:
Raymond Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican artist from the small town of Santa Isabel. At age 20, he moved to Ohio and soon began studying at Kent State University, where he received the Vincent J. Stark Scholarship in Painting and Drawing (2018). During his studies, he was selected for critiques by visiting artists including Philip Pearlstein, Danny Ferrell, and Mernet Larsen.
After earning his BFA in Studio Painting in 2019, Raymond exhibited in several shows, including the Groundhog Show (2022) and solo exhibitions “Wanderer” (2021) and “Portals” (2024). Most recently, he participated in the group exhibition “La Promesa” (2025). He currently works at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Community Arts Center, where he fosters meaningful connections through community-based art engagement.