Nostalgic Overlapping of Images, Memories and Family History

Apr 7

Nicolas Sanchez explores his bi-cultural origins, beautifully blends his nostalgia for rural Mexico with American Midwest by creating layered narratives that are expressed through both imagery and the process.

INTERVIEW WITH NICOLAS SANCHEZ

LES COULEURS: What's your earliest memory of picking up a paintbrush?

NICOLAS SANCHEZ: My father taught me how to draw when I was really young. He taught my older brother and me how to draw and then my younger brother learned to draw just by watching us. My dad bought us sketchbooks to doddle in while in the backseat driving on our way to the grocery store. It kept us from wrestling and so we didn't distract our dad from driving haha.

LC: What role does the artist have in society?

NS: People create for a big variety of purposes. They find inspiration in the world and create art because of it. Some people create art and then society adopts it for their own purposes that the creator may or may have not intended their work to be used for. I make work for myself first and foremost. I make work about my culture, my family’s history, and the multiple realities that I observe.

LC: What themes do you pursue?

NS: I explore the concept of inheritance in my work. I explore the identity that is simultaneously lost and gained through preserving a legacy. Extracting from my bi-cultural experiences growing up, I depict my family's rural Mexican history and the American Midwest to create layered narratives that are expressed through both imagery and process. Overlapping imagery such as old family photos of distant relatives and rural animals, for me, activates a personal sense of uncertainty yet familiarity of space.

NICOLAS SANCHEZ From the artist’s archives — NICOLAS SANCHEZ
From the artist’s archives

LC: What are you working on now?

NS: I currently have a solo exhibition on view at the Sugarlift Gallery in Chelsea in New York City of charcoal drawings. The show is called CHARCOAL, as I wanted this exhibition to focus on the medium. The subject continues to include aspects from my family history and culture, but front in center is the medium and all of its boundless qualities,- charcoal. It's on view until April 17th. Directly next door to this exhibition is the biggest painting I have ever made to date,- 20ft long artwork featuring brightly colored Folklorico Ballet dancers titled, ‘Folklorico de Guerrero’ also on view through the summer.

LC: Can you tell us about the process of making your work?

NS: It's important for me to have an elastic studio practice. I work in different mediums and approach each piece differently. Even though some of my work may have a similar finish from work to work, I always start and arrive at the final destination differently. In each one of my works, there is something in the process of making each particular drawing or painting that I have never done before. I try to avoid process and style since art is my vehicle for growth and exploration as both a person and an artist.