Esteban Cabeza de Baca
Photo by Brad Ogbonna
Esteban Cabeza de Baca’s paintings, while made from direct observations of the American landscape, are inspired by his dreams.
By painting his dreams, Cabeza de Baca—of Mexican, Native American, and Spanish ancestry—seeks to invent new forms out of the loss of personal pre-Columbian memory. Often painted in one sitting en plein air, the paintings are dream journals and rituals of cultural self-determination that complicate rather than generalize the experience of being Indigenous to the United States.
New York, NY
Born 1985, San Ysidro, CA
2014 MFA Columbia University, New York, NY
2010 BFA The Cooper Union, New York, NY