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Rodrigo Alvarez 

Artist Statement:

 

I create metal sculptures, paintings, and large-scale public artworks that explore the persistence and regenerative force of the natural world. My sculptural forms often become trees, spiders, bodies, and other organisms that appear to grow, struggle, protect, or adapt. I am drawn to the contradiction of using rigid, industrial materials to create forms that feel alive. Through this transformation, I investigate strength and vulnerability, destruction and regeneration, and the forces that shape living beings without extinguishing them.

I was born and raised in Uruguay and shaped as an artist in Kansas City. My relationship with sculpture began before I had a name for it. After rainstorms in the Uruguayan flatlands, puddles became mortar for my earliest constructions. At Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, fire entered that relationship, and I fell in love with metal. Later, while working as a mechanic, I used the shop after hours to make sculpture. When space, money, and immigration restrictions complicated a conventional artistic path, making became a way to remain grounded and turn limitation into possibility.

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Artist Bio:

Rodrigo was born in Rivera, Uruguay and moved to Kansas City at the age of 14 in 2002. He graduated from the Paseo Academy Of Fine and Performing Arts in 2007 and studied graphic design at Metropolitan Community College. Rodrigo then attended the Illustration Academy in the summer of 2019 and worked for Ivanhoe Urban Neighborhood Initiative while teaching painting to senior citizens as a solo artist. In his solo artwork, Rodrigo, also known as “Rico,” explores the persistence and relentless force of Mother Earth by fusing organic figures into metal sculptures. By bending, melting, and bracing commonly used metals, he hopes to portray the balance, power and adaptability of nature. He also enjoys painting with acrylic and oil and doing plenair around rarely visited areas of Kansas City. Rico’s sculpture La Vida y La Muerte, a 9-foot spider constructed from reclaimed metal, is on view as part of La Presencia Estratificada at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Rico is a founding member of the M.A.S.A. collective

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Isaac Tapia

Artist Statement:

 

I explore the many aesthetic experiences of migration through my paintings, fusing classical techniques of European portraiture with the bright colors, textures and patterns of my childhood in Mexico and the fluid imagery found in animation and street art that inspired me as an adolescent in the United States. My portraits are visual tributes to the many stories of struggle and triumph within my community.  The faces-and stories-within my work expand upon existing narratives about representation and identity. By visually elevating those often overlooked by society, I honor their journeys and celebrate the moments of joy, resilience, resistance and peace that accompany survival. 

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Artist Bio:

Isaac Tapia was born in Mexico, where he lived until moving to the U.S. when he was 9. Isaac focuses on portraits that elevate important-yet often under-represented-members of his community and celebrate the complex narratives of contemporary migration.

He blends photography, audio interviews, and traditional oil portraiture techniques to convey rich, multi-layered stories and create opportunities for identification and connection.  Isaac’s paintings have been exhibited throughout Kansas City-including at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis and his work has traveled in shows across the Midwest with the Mexican Consulate and the M.A.S.A. Collective. He had a residency and exhibition at Casa de Lu Sur in Mexico City in December of 2024. Isaac is a founding member of the M.A.S.A. Collective, and was one of the resident artists at Charlotte Street Foundation. He is also one-half of the mural duo IT-RA Icons, who have painted murals across the country.

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Cesar Velez

Artist Statement:

 

My work derives from a place of seeking personal liberation through honest human expression.  Regardless of the medium I choose to pursue that freedom in, whether painting, writing, or film, I aim to present a dignified portrayal of my people and our experiences in a time when these truths are easily misrepresented.  I am a first-generation DACAmented immigrant born in Mexico and raised in the South and Midwest United States, and that experience and upbringing have heavily influenced my worldview and the art that I create. Memory and empathy are at the root of all my work, and each piece that I create is an archival record of this history and a step toward reclamation of my own autonomy. 
 

Cesar Velez

Artist Bio:

 

Cesar Velez is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist based in Kansas City, MO.  His work is a personal navigation of the undocumented immigrant experience, shaped by a millennial upbringing in the American South and Midwest. Utilizing expressive color and evocative imagery, he relies on personal history and memory to create work of substantial emotional depth.  He was a featured subject in the 2023 PBS documentary We Are Latinos II, and his work has been presented in exhibitions with the Charlotte Street Foundation, Union Station, Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis and the New Art Dealers Association, as well as university and college galleries at the University of Central Missouri, East Tennessee State University and KCKCC. He has been profiled in the Kansas City Star, with additional features in Flatland KC, KC Studio and The Pitch. He is also a founding member of the Kansas City based artist collective M.A.S.A.