Review in Southwest Contemporary

"Artists Turn to Text for Concise Social Messages at the Rubin Center in El Paso"

November 23, 2022 -

(RE)CONTEXT: Artists Reconstructing Words August 25–December 9, 2022 Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, El Paso

For a long time, we have been told that a picture is worth a thousand words, an idea that has shaped us into thinking that art is capable of transmitting knowledge without the need for textual communication. This understanding of the power of images might be well suited for the expression of abstract ideas whose messages are open to interpretation, but as the arts increasingly become powerful tools of social change, artists understand the urgency to incorporate concrete messages into their practice. This has led to a contemporary wave of socio-political artworks that rely on text to support their ideas, a phenomenon reflected in (RE)CONTEXT: Artists Reconstructing Words on view at the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts in El Paso, Texas. (READ MORE)