Armando Cortes

Armando Guadalupe Cortés is an artist living and working in the industrial city of Wilmington, California. Originally from Urequío, a small farming community in Michoacán, México, Cortés draws inspiration from every aspect of his two vastly different worlds: sights, history, sounds, routines, smells, faiths, fables…

Cortés’ work can perhaps be broken down into two overlapping categories: the physical and the magical.

Cortés’ works are often an exploration of labor and repetition in both his mechanized and his rural surroundings. Of utmost interest are the endurance and resilience of the communities within these two settings as they face their everyday struggle. These explorations, however, are not done from afar. They are realized through an up close, metaphorical, and often times, physical walk in another’s shoes. Cortés’ sculpture and performance works are highly influenced by personal and communal experience communicated to him via elders in his community, as well as through collective and genetic memory. Cortés’ works are often an exploration of labor and repetition in both his mechanized and his rural surroundings. Of utmost interest are the endurance and resilience of the communities within these two settings as they face their everyday struggle. These explorations, however, are not done from afar. They are realized through an up close, metaphorical, and often times, physical walk in another’s shoes. Cortés’ sculpture and performance works are highly influenced by personal and communal experience communicated to him via elders in his community, as well as through collective and genetic memory.