We Are Dust
Monica Canilao
April 30 – May 30
Opening Reception Friday April 30th 7-10pm
“The past is not something you can choose to leave behind. It guides
your hand and sways your gaze, it is blood and tears and bliss. Paint
chip trails and ghost images are left behind in abandoned places,
lived in to death and pieces. Every life leaves an imprint. Plants
shoot out roots and break through foundations, found under the
floorboards. You rub your eyes clear for the first time and see the
war paint that has always been there, running rainforest colors across
your cheeks.
These past histories unearthed are not a thing that you’ve lost, it’s
a veil sitting just behind your eyes, weaving, running, somewhere just
beyond the treeline. These Old faces are your faces, and Your hands
have built things without permission. Every tiny effort feeds and is
recycled… The universe is so large that all we can do is hold on and
take care of one another… because In the end We are just dust and more
dust.”-Monica Canilao
Every place she goes she is picking up the abandoned remnants of other people’s lives. ‘We are dust’ is Monica Canilao’s first New York solo exhibition featuring found antique portraits, enshrined in the collections she has amassed through time. Everything built is made up of things abandoned, in a phase of decay. In the manipulation of these orphaned portraits, gender and identity is blurred, redefined and made fluid. Monica’s compositions seamlessly meld the old and new: stained paper, withered fabric, and bones combine with her hands to take part in breathing new life.
Monica Canilao hails from Oakland, CA where she spends her days stitching, painting, printing, and breathing life into the refuse that dominates our time and place. She received a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts and has shown in galleries, community spaces, and abandoned places worldwide.
Our LAST event at 103 Havemeyer after over 6 years!
