El Paso’s ‘Art Remixed’ exhibit comprises photos, paintings, and music
Nico Antuna Cooper and Cruz Barajas Lujan’s show this weekend will explore art in several forms. But it also is a collaboration rooted in a longtime El Paso friendship.
“Art Remixed” is a multimedia show that brings together the diversity of the friends’ artistic interests, Antuna said.
“Cruz and I are both artists. We’re musicians, photographers, digital artists, so it’s going to be a mix of all sorts of different things.
“We’re going to have paintings, photography, remixed digital music for sale, a little bit of everything,” he said.
The seeds for the artistic celebration Friday and Saturday date back to a friendship that began in high school.
“We went to Eastwood High School together,” Antuna said. “We were marching band.”
Cruz laughs and adds, “We both played trumpet.”
That interest in music was the source and the inspiration for the friends’ artistic expansion.
“When we’re playing music, you’ve got to design artwork and you’ve got to start making posters, so that’s how I started getting into visual design, and eventually we had to film music videos, so Cruz started getting really good with the camera and we just kind of started developing more skills from there,” Antuna explained.
Through the years, the two have collaborated musically, performing as a guitar duo in Fragile Balance, and have supported each other in their separate pursuits, with Antuna having a strong focus on art and Lujan on photography.
Now, Borderland residents can experience their artwork in a free, family-friendly format at the Amano Artist Co-op, 210 Poplar St., starting at 7 p.m. both days.
The event should “go until probably midnight, depending on how long people are here,” Antuna said.
Lujan added, “Later, if there’s people here, there’s people here.”
Antuna said, Our ambition is to fill the entire gallery with nothing but our work, so it’s a big undertaking and we’re excited to be pushing out content like that.”
While the two started out as musicians, their growing interests led them to this weekend’s show.
“The inspiration just comes from decade’s worth of collaborating in general,” Lujan said. “We’ve been musicians since 2010, 2011, and so we’ve always written music together. We’ve made films together, and it just made sense that when we started doing our own thing — Nico started going into art, I started doing photography — that eventually we’d come back and sort of like bring those things together, and that’s really the source of the inspiration for it.”
Antuna added: “Because, really, we’ve been friends for pretty much half our lives at this point. And we’ve been playing music together for over a decade.”
Cutting-edge of art scene in El Paso
The show will offer visitors an innovative way to experience art.
“If you’re looking for the El Paso underground, for the cutting edge of what the art scene is doing here, that’s what we are doing here at Amano, and that’s what me and Cruz are working on,” Antuna said.
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“So, if somebody’s looking for something that’s really pushing the envelope, something that’s playing with new ideas, something that’s looking at how technology interfaces with our history, all that stuff are things that we talk about.”
Much of their work is based in religious iconography.
“Because Cruz, his artist persona is ‘Cross,’ because that’s what Cruz means in Spanish, so we feature a lot of religious imagery,” Antuna said. “We talk about what that means in context of the technological age, so that’s something that a lot of artists are doing these days, is really getting into technology, what that means.
“And I think that’s really what we’re about because we’ve mastered so many analog ways of doing things, whether that’s throwing paint, whether that’s using photos,” he said. “We’ve also mastered the digital sense, and so bringing together the analog with the digital means something, and what that means in the Borderland is even more interesting. So, we’re trying to take that approach to this particular show.”
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That artistic exploration includes their music, which ranges from acoustic guitar compositions by the two to “Diamond Hands,” EDM music recently released by Antuna.
Although the two perform together, this event will feature prerecorded music, Lujan said.
“We’ll have our music playing. But I think for this event we’ll be hands off, as far as music,” he said.
Antuna added: “This one is all visual. We are going to have our music on sale. We’re do have USBs that are going to have all of our discography on it, both the Fragile Balance and my personal discography, and we’ll have some merchandise and stuff like that.”
But for the show, “we’re going to be talking to the people, we’re going to be interacting with whoever comes in, so that’s going to be the vibe for this event,” Antuna said.
But he does hope to see people dancing to the music.
“I think it’s going to be a cool underground vibe, and that’s something that really inspires us,” he said. “We watch a lot of ’90s movies and stuff like that, so there’s a like a lot of this underground ’90s vibe of music and art and everything and so we are trying to recreate that experience in today’s day and age.”
Creativity in the Borderland
The artists have found artistic creativity and inspiration in their hometown.
“We’re grateful to be here in the Borderland,” Antuna said. “And I think we’re here pushing something a little bit different, expressing some different ideas, and if you’re interested in that type of expression, this is the place for you to come. Amano is the place for you to come check out.”
Cruz said he’s also thankful to “Amano for allowing the artists to put on their own shows here and just allowing us to create the way that we want to, in our own styles. They encourage that, so this is a great space.”
“So, if you’re an artist out there and you are interested in renting a space here, definitely come check us out,” he said.
“I think if you’re looking for something different, something kind of against the norm, something improvisational and DIY, I mean, that’s kind of what we’re all about.”
