Henry Morales
Septa Textile
Trash Bags, 81" x 82", 2020.
Painting provides me with an outlet to express and explore my personal experience as a first-generation Guatemalan American. Growing up in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, I saw first-hand the struggle of my family, friends, and community members around me which, in turn, has inspired me to bring awareness to their struggles. To accurately capture my experience in an authentic and powerful manner, my art is created as an autobiographical narrative, utilizing humor and non-traditional materials. Humor allows for those outside my target audience to relate to the material and understand the deeper meaning without averting the works based on the deeper context. Non-traditional material is imperative to the meaning of my work as well. Materials such as cement, trash bags, and joint compound allow me to foster a connection between the work my family does while portraying the beauty and richness of the culture from which we come from.
Henry Morales was born in 1993 in Los Angeles, California and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2004. He received his Associates of Arts from the College of Southern Nevada in 2018 and is currently enrolled at Temple University at The Tyler School of Art and Architecture. He is expected to graduate with a Bachelors of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Painting in the spring of 2021. His works focus on utilizing various materials and artistic styles to provide his commentary on society and the world around him, often influenced by his cultural upbringing as a first-generation Guatemalan American.