Salvador Jiménez-Flores is a Chicago-based artist and educator who, as a teenager, immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. His body of work is steeped in his experience as a bi-cultural, bilingual artist living “concurrently in two different worlds.” Arte-Sano: Soy libre porque pienso showcases the breadth of his practice through a range of media. His ceramics, glass, metalwork, photography, and prints reflect the artist’s continued exploration of the politics of identity and the state of double consciousness. He also highlights the struggles and complexities of Latinx people living in the U.S.

Rich in symbolism and iconography, Salvador Jiménez-Flores draws upon Afro-Futurism, Funk Ceramics, Robert Arneson’s satiric comedy, and references pre-Columbian traditions and pop culture, to create a world that he calls “Rascquache Futurism.” In the true nature of “rasquachismo,” the concept of making the most of limited resources, Jiménez-Flores attests to his own defiance and inventiveness as an “artesano” (“craftsman”) which is a larger reflection of the resilience of Latinx people.

The exhibition title Arte-Sano:Soy libre porque pienso directly translates to “Craftsman: I am free because I think.” Soy libre porque pienso references the freedom that comes with being able to think for oneself. Including a hyphen in the word “Arte-Sano” Jiménez-Flores creates two words and an expanded meaning “arte” (“art”) and “sano” (“healthy”) revealing his fascination with word play and the power of language.

Salvador Jiménez-Flores is an Assistant Professor in ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been included in exhibitions at museums such as the National Museum of Mexican Art, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, and Museum of Art and Design. Among his many awards and recognitions, Jiménez-Flores is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, a Burke Prize finalist, and a 2021 United States Artist Fellow. Currently, Salvador Jiménez-Flores is a member of The Color Network, an organization whose mission is to promote the advancement of people of color in the ceramic arts, and the Institutio Gráfico de Chicago, a socially conscious organization that utilizes printmaking to ignite community engagement in sociopolitical discourse.

Terrain is a collection of landscape images created using the Wet Plate Collodion method of photography. Invented in the 1850s, wet plate collodion is an entirely hands-on process that allows me to connect to each step. From mixing my own chemistry to utilizing my portable darkroom to sensitize and develop each image, I am deeply involved from start to finish. Much like the wet plate photographers that came before me, I travel with my large format wooden cameras, my darkroom and chemistry, and a passion for landscapes larger than I can imagine. Instead of a covered wagon, I travel in my 1979 Chevy camper van, creating images of the world around me that can be held and shared for hundreds of years.

Visit Studios Inc on First Friday and take in Yoonmi Nam’s solo exhibition, Generally Meant to Be Discarded. We will have light refreshments and beer from our partners at Torn Label.