José de Jesús Rodríguez's Back & Forth

Between building up layers of plaster and paint in his New York City studio and lending a hand around his family ranch in Salinas, California, artist José de Jesús Rodríguez searches for a visual language capable of reflecting the complex experience of his personal and collective identities. Dense with figures and landscapes, the references in his artworks range from the 2004 Denzel Washington thriller Man on Fire to the paintings of classic Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. This documentary short follows the artist in a moment of creative transition as he adapts the techniques of mosaic to his multilayered compositions, embracing more openness, gesture, and ambiguity in this emerging body of work. “It’s not just about the image,” says Rodríguez, “but the way things have to meet and touch, and the edges, and seeing what can be generated from that. From things that maybe aren’t supposed to be together, having to acknowledge each other, and hang out.” Scenes and symbols from popular culture, history, and his own family life collide in his paintings, revealing how these elements inform our self-image yet ultimately failing to capture the full texture of our lived experience.

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