Blackbird

An online journal of literature and the arts

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Flight v22n1

Art

Gallery

Cesar Piedra

Curated by Josh Galarza

A felted wool sculpture of a coyote and a xoloitzcuintli surrounded by calendar iconography.
Caninos Canijos, Felted Wool, 2023
A massive axolotl pinata hung in a white gallery.
iiiDALE!!! iiiDALE!!! iiiDALE!!!, Mixed Media, 2019
A set of nine ceramic and concrete tiles featuring a repeated image of the coatl (serpent).
Coatl, Mixed Media, 2021
Artist Cesar Piedra stands in a parking lot, selling his ceramic pieces.
El Vendedor, Performance, 2021
A cement and ceramics relief sculpture featuring the gloves of Mickey Mouse, Mexica skulls, and a gold Virgin Mary necklace.
Run ‘Em, Mixed Media, 2021
A concrete and ceramic sculpture of a Mexica tzompantli, a skull rack, with an obsidian encrusted soccer ball atop the altar.
The Beautiful Game, Mixed Media, 2021
A concrete and ceramic sculpture of a Mexica tzompantli, a skull rack, with an obsidian encrusted soccer ball atop the altar.
The Beautiful Game, Mixed Media, 2021
A felted image of the Mexica goddess Coatlicue represented as the Virgin Mary, surrounded by ceramic macuahuitl.
Coatlicue Transformed, Mixed Media, 2021
A mixed media sculpture of a hoop referencing a game played by the Mexica.
Nuestros Juegos Antiguos, Mixed Media, 2022
Ceramic Modelo bottles fashioned like a Macuahuitl and Cross on felted mats atop a painted pedestal reminiscent of the one that the Mexica gods of life and death stand on.
El Ritual, Mixed Media, 2023
Ceramic Modelo bottles fashioned like a Macuahuitl and Cross on felted mats atop a painted pedestal reminiscent of the one that the Mexica gods of life and death stand on.
El Ritual, Mixed Media, 2023
Reciprocity, Felted Wool, 2022

Contributor's Notes

Josh Galarza, lead art editor, is a second-year MFA student in fiction and creative nonfiction at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky (Henry Holt and Company, 2024). His creative nonfiction has appeared in FOLIO and elsewhere. He holds a BFA in art and a BA in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, and is a multidisciplinary visual artist specializing in printmaking, book arts, and sculpture.

Photo of Cesar Piedra

Cesar Piedra

Cesar Piedra is an interdisciplinary artist, born in Southern California and raised in northern Nevada. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in ceramics and a minor in art history at the University of Nevada Reno. His art practice is informed by the rich history of the Mesoamerican and Mexican-American cultures. Piedra’s mash-up of Mesoamerican and contemporary subject matter and iconography allows him to make connections to the ancestral culture of Mexico to share, critique, and explore conversations about the evolution of culture.

Art

  • Gallery

  • The Hyphen Between Mexican-American