Past Exhibition: January 6, 2023 — February 18, 2023
Phantom in the Headlights is an exhibition by Texas-based artist Jesus Treviño that contemplates transgenerational histories and collective and long-term trauma concerning Treviño’s personal experiences. The exhibition’s title may refer to moving forward through life or looking ahead to the future. At the same time, histories of what came before are present but may suggest an inability to think clearly or react due to fear. Paintings and objects in the show function as conduits to the past, with archival family imagery melting into contemporary everyday scenes of Treviño’s friends and family. The work is composed of and actively affected by those histories through the use of used motor oil collected from the artist’s family’s dealership near the international bridge in Brownsville, Texas. The used motor oil could be interpreted as blood-like, with a history of movement across borders and labor from his family, allowing forward progression.
Artist Bio
Jesus Treviño (b. 1995, Brownsville, Texas) received a B.A. in Studio Art from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2018 and earned his MFA in Painting/Drawing at the University of Texas at Austin in 2022. His work is rooted in his experience being raised on the U.S./Mexico border and deals with the erasure of history, displacement, and its residual personal, emotional, and social effects. Trevino has had two solo exhibitions in Texas at Martha’s Contemporary (2022) and Presa House Gallery (2019), as well as a two-person exhibition at Contra Common (2021). He has also organized a group exhibition at the Visual Arts Center, Austin, TX (2020) and has been included in group exhibitions at Exhibit/208 in Albuquerque, NM (2022); Las Cruces Museum of Art, NM (2022); the Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX (2022); The Cole Art Center, Nacogdoches, TX (2021); Field Projects Gallery, New York (2021); Carlsbad Museum and Art Center, NM (2021) and the Rockport Center for the Arts, Rockport, TX (2021). Most recently, he attended the Desert Door Residency (2022) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2022).
To learn more about Jesus visit www.jesustrevinoart.com.