Early Learning
featuring work by Angel Cabrales, Charles Gray, & Kristin Boyer
September 23 thru December 2, 2023This fall, Kinfolk House continues its exploration of trauma and care. Early Learning features works by Angel Cabrales, Charles Gray, and Kristin Boyer, whose art investigates a wide range of notions related to childhood, from playfulness and joy to violence and harmful policies.
El Paso-based artist Angel Cabrales’ work uses the playground as a metaphor for restrictions being placed on youth and even the future through policies around borders and migration. Childhood relics like a slide, a swing set, and a merry-go-round are rendered inoperable by the addition of violent and invasive security tactics. The work speaks to Cabrales’ experience of revisiting a childhood play site to learn that it has since been split in half by the border wall. However, the work also evokes the experiences and trauma of young children being detained at the U.S./Mexico border.
Charles Gray’s autobiographical mixed media works are deeply rooted in his childhood experiences. His work, which focuses on the pursuit of happiness, references photographs of his family members intertwined with anime characters and Pokémon cards, both of which were significant to the artist growing up.
Coppell-based interdisciplinary artist Kristin Boyer works in printmaking, sculpture, and fibers to explore the struggles and joy of learning to communicate with others. Through carefully constructed playful pieces, Boyer references childhood toys like building blocks, pull toys, and puzzles that consider the various ways in which people learn.
Featured Artists:
Angel Cabrales is an El Paso-based sculptor. His father, a retired engineer at White Sands Missile Range, instilled Cabrales with an interest in science and engineering, while his mother, a politically active stay-at-home mom, taught him the importance of community and social work through her volunteering. His work, which is steeped in social/political commentary with an engineered flare, is born out of his upbringing.
Cabrales holds an MFA from the University of North Texas and a BFA from Arizona State University. He has exhibited in the International TransBorder Biennial, Texas Biennial, AmoA Biennial 600, the Chamizal National Memorial, the Mexic-Arte Museum, the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM, the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Mesa, AZ, the MAC and the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas, and the El Paso Museum of Art.
A Fort Worth native, Charles Gray attended Tarrant County College and the University of Texas at Arlington. His visceral paintings are personal conversations about family, slavery, and religious abuse.
Gray has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions at 500X Gallery in Dallas and Dang Good Candy in Fort Worth. Additionally, his art has been included in exhibitions at LA Artcore Gallery in Los Angeles, Royal Nebeker Gallery in Astoria, and Fort Works Art. In 2014, he staged a large-scale exhibition in Hilmsen, Germany during his residency at Atelierhaus Hilmsen.
Kristin Boyer is an interdisciplinary artist from Coppell. She works in print, sculpture, and fibers to portray the challenges and joy of learning to communicate with others. Boyer’s work explores ways in which communication skills are developed through play.
She received her BFA with a minor in Japanese from Baylor University in 2021. Currently, she is a graduate student at the University of North Texas. Boyer has shown her work at the LUX Center of the Arts, the Greater Denton Arts Council, Tippetts and Eccles Gallery, Megalo Print Studio, the Waco Art Center, Downtowner Gallery, and Rockport Center for the Arts.
