Though Francisco Delgado calls El Paso, Texas, his home base these days, the multimedia artist still travels to his birthplace of Ciudad Juárez regularly. Many of his family and friends still live there, Delgado tells SFR, and even if the trek has become a more difficult ordeal under the Trump administration, those journeys coupled with the artist’s journalism-adjacent desire to document and unpack the world at this moment have become at least part of the impetus behind Delgado’s forthcoming solo show at Santa Fe gallery Hecho a Mano.
In Animales de Carga, the Yale School of Art-trained Delgado brings a satirical eye and multiple mediums like oil, lithograph, spray paint and colored pencil to the politics of identity and the borderlands. Delgado culls from concepts of self-portaiture, sociological commentary and even political cartoonery for the series—much of which depicts the challenges of dichotomy. Delgado has a foot planted in America and Mexico both, meaning he glimpses challenges on both sides of the border. Ultimately, though, he says, he’s looking to spark conversation, foster humanity and identify issues from a complex tapestry of, let’s face it, too many issues.
“I think I want to start some dialogue with the viewer,” he explains. “I don’t feel like I have the answers—I’d hate to have that responsibility—but starting a conversation will hopefully help resolve some ideas, some issues, some conflicts in people’s daily lives.”