Details
Esteban Cabeza de Baca’s paintings dance between histories, landscapes, and time – speaking to his ancestry and inviting visitors to consider all stories of immigration, Indigenous identity, and resistance. Cabeza de Baca was born into a family of labor activists working in San Ysidro, California, and spent his childhood driving the long journey between California and New Mexico. Ranging from 2015 to 2024, the eleven paintings in the gallery explore issues of belonging and identity, activism, and joy and celebration. It is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition on the West Coast.
Often painting on square canvases, Cabeza de Baca’s paintings feel like snippets of time, as if recreated from a dream or a childhood memory. In March to Sacramento, he portrays the Delano grape workers who marched to protest poor working conditions and low wages, whose work, in collaboration with Cesar Chavez, led to the formation of the United Farm Workers, the largest farm worker union in the United States. Other works, such as Teatro Campesino and Suenos, further highlight an important conversation around agricultural labor and human rights. Throughout the work, you may notice depictions of Mexican cloth dolls gifted to the artist by his mother. The dolls ground the images in the artist’s childhood while reaching toward — and remembering — the future. Works like Medicina Lunar and Hybrids use the artist’s ancestral landscapes as another distinct voice before they are lost to time and memory. Esteban Cabeza de Baca’s work explores the personal stories and significant civil movements that shape our perspectives, sharing a clear vision for a more equal world.
“At SLOMA, we are thrilled to present this exhibition, which challenges us to see beyond the present moment and engage with the deep, interconnected stories that shape our world,” said Leann Standish, Executive Director.
About the Artist
Cabeza de Baca has received numerous grants and awards including, a Robert Gamblin Painting Grant (2013); a Stern Fellowship, Columbia University (2013); a Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program Award (2014); a Stokroos Foundation Grant (2017); a Henk en Victoria de Heus Fellowship (2018); a NYFA Painting Fellowship (2021); and a Civitella Ranieri Visual Art Fellowship (2024). His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, such as: Bluer Than a Sky Weeping Bones, Gaa Gallery, (2016, Provincetown, MA); Unlearn, Fons Welters Gallery, (2018, Amsterdam); Verano, with Heidi Howard, Gaa Gallery, (2018, Wellfleet, MA); Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Gaa Projects (2019, Cologne); Worlds without Borders, Boers-Li Gallery (2019, New York); Esteban Cabeza de Baca – Life is one drop in limitless oceans … , Kunstfort Vijfhuizen, (2019, Amsterdam); Nepantla, Garth Greenan Gallery, (2021, New York); Let Earth Breathe, The Momentary Museum (2022, Bentonville); Alma, Garth Greenan Gallery (2023, New York); West of Federal, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (2023, Denver); and Cesar’s Angels, Parker Gallery (2024, Los Angeles). He has participated in over 20 group exhibitions at venues such as the Leroy Neiman Art Center (2014, 2015, New York), the Yale University School of Sacred Music (2017, New Haven, CT), the Dutch Royal Palace (2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands), the Drawing Center (2019, New York), MoCA Tucson (2023, Tucson), and Newchild Gallery (2024, Antwerp) among others.
Artist Talk
On February 22, 2025, SLOMA hosted an artist’s talk with Esteban Cabeza de Baca to celebrate the launch of his exhibition, Memories of the Future. In his work, Cabeza de Baca employs a broad range of painterly techniques, entwining layers of graffiti, landscape, and pre-Columbian pictographs in ways that confound Cartesian single-point perspective.
Videography by Slava Narozhnyi. Missed an artist’s talk? Check out SLOMA’s online video archive!
Exhibition Highlights
Related Programming
Every Saturday at 11 AM: Join a free tour of the exhibition led by our trained docents. Check in at the front desk.
Contamos con visitas guiadas en español, las puedes solicitar al correo esaperstein@sloma.org para agendar.
Saturday, March 8, 11 AM–1 PM: SLOMA’s Second Saturdays free family art event. Learn about perspective in artworks, inspired by the works of Memories of the Future.
Memories of the Future is generously presented by
Sue Sacks and Kelly Sinnock
Additional support provided by
Special thanks to our wine partner for the exhibition opening
