A Maker's Life RaĂşl Acero A Retrospective
What is a calling? Is it coyotes on a moonlit suburban street, or a cold western New York wind, tearing through your poor windows and door frames? Do we find a calling in life, or does it find us? Does the calling finally let us find ourselves, and define some reason we stumble through a life? And what of memories? Do we remember something or finally, with age, are we remembering a memory? Questions, all these callings - these turns in the road, the pursuit of an image, a fugitive form, something just out of reach. There is a calling for work, to catch this thing, to create the form and the image from nothing and bridge the emptiness with materials. From the vantage of the years – calls and responses. I am an immigrant and the child of immigrants. My life as a café con leche brown person in this country has shaped that response, more than I had initially thought. The simple way to express that is to call it “identity”, but it turns out to be more than that. It is more a framing of individual experience in light of a universal experience. It is the calling of a single person in the tapestry of where we all are in the immense beauty of a galaxy, one with a few black holes at its center. It is a milky way of sweetness, bitterness and loss. In my youth, becoming an artist never occurred to me. I had no idea anything like that existed. Still, I had the feeling of wobbling on a spinning planet, the feeling that there was more to it, that there were mysteries to life that required some sort of tool to figure out. It turned out the tools for me were the tools of art. The things that helped me most on that path were music and poetry. Poetry and music are the original artforms I think, and poetry is the music of words. The work I put together in this small retrospective are a fraction of the objects I have made in response to the calling. It is impossible to really capture the whole thing, the struggle and the joy of living a maker’s life. Raúl Acero January 2021
My older brother James and I in Colombia
I am on the left of this passport photograph , my mother Olga is in the middle and my brother James is on the right, this also became our green card photograph later on.
My Father, Eduardo is in the center of this photograph with my brother and I in New York City
I chose this photograph of myself in one of my first snowfalls in New York because it shows the very different experience of where I was born to where I was raised, these differences and the experience of being of two cultures have shaped my artwork.
I didn't discover art until later in college in a ceramics class, clay became my entryway into art and also my touchstone as my life in art progressed
Reclining Figure, Porcelain 28” x 48 “
Dancer Wood, Clay 86” x 50”
Standing Figure Wood, Clay 72” x 20”
El Campesino 72” x 23” wood, clay
Sueños de la Tierra 80” x 26 “wood, clay
Votive Figure 73” x 20 “ Wood, Clay
Figura con la Cabeza en las Nubes (figure with their head in the clouds) 82� x 28 “ Steel, Plaster, Ceramic Shards
Detail Figura con la Cabeza en las nubes
Installation Artist in Residence Show Studio Museum in Harlem
Untitled Figure 34” x 12” steel, plaster, clay shards
Installation Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art
The Dream of the Endless Rooms 72” x 36” wood and mixed media, found objects
Talking Stick
Clay, Wood 48” x 24”
The Changeling
24”x 22”
Clay and oxides
Secretos de Mi Pasado
26 x 14�.
wood, mixed media, clay
Polychrome Bowl. Earthenware Clay.
24 “ x 8 “
Studio in Brooklyn, New York
Untitled
Carved Wood
120 “ x 30” x 80”
Los Desaparecidos (the disappeared) Wood and Clay dimensions variable
El Pequeño Gigante (the Little Giant ) Steel, Plaster, Glazed Ceramic 36” x 12”
Dancing Figure Steel, Alabaster, Wood 72” x 20”
Detail Dancing Figure
Untitled Figure Steel, Plaster, Wood 48” x 20”
Personal Mythology
Steel, Plaster, Earth 20” x 16”
Life Circle
24 “ x 7” Laser Cut Steel
Infinitos
Digital Drawing
Ante el Infinito ( before the infinite) Laser cut Steel 36” x 60”
Ante el Infinito ( before the infinite) Installation Warren Wilson College N.C.
A Place in Time
24” x 48”
Paper, Wood
Untitled 14” x 38” Wood, Paint
Un Rincon del Alma.
Wood, Flowers, Digital Drawings
60” x 30”
Militares y mi Padre, Digital Composite
Padre e Hijos # 2
Digital Composite
Padre e Hijos # 4
Digital Composite
Personal Histories
Digital Drawing and Composite
Un Lucero ( a great light) Digital Drawing
Un Lucero # 2 Digital Drawing
Mi Pais Digital Drawing
The Everyday Digital Drawing
El Otro Lado # 1 and #2
6” x 8” Charcoal on Paper
El Otro Lado # 3
6” x 8”
Charcoal on Paper
Only Human Unique Bronze 10” x 4”
Father and Son Unique Bronze 11” x 4”
La Vejez ( old age) wax detail 12” x 4”
Installation Opalka Gallery Albany, New York
Reclining Head 16� reassembled clay
Forma y Fragmento Installation University of Redlands Art Gallery
Chisme (Gossip) three heads each 12’ x 6”
Meditacion 10” x 6” ceramic
Untitled Head 14” x 8” Ceramic
Torre 80” x 14” Ceramic
Figurita 6” x 3” Ceramic
Untitled Head 8” x 4” Ceramic
Alma # 32
18” x 10” Ceramic
Dos Jardines (two gardens) 19” x 13” Gouache, Ink
PictografĂas
Pyrography, Wood, Gouache
Pictografías
Pyrography, Wood, Gouache each approximately 10” x 6”
Almitas each approximately 10” x 6” Ceramic
Sleep 14” x 10” Raku Ceramic
Hermanitos each approximately 8� x 4� Plaster, Earth
Untitled Head 10” x 5” Raku Ceramic
Untitled Head 9” x 5”
Raku Ceramic reassembled
Untitled Head 6” x 5”
Raku Ceramic reassembled
Untitled Head 12” x 6” Raku Ceramic
Otoño ( autumn) 30” x 28”Gouache on Board, Raku Ceramic
Installation Memory’s Gate University of Redlands
Memory’s Gate # 5
38” x 18”.
Gypsum Cement with Ceramic Pigment
Memory’s Gate # 1
36” x 22”
Gypsum Cement with Ceramic Pigment
Detail Memory’s Gate # 1
Memory’s Gate # 6
16” x 14”
Gypsum Cement with Ceramic Pigment
Detail Memory’s Gate # 6
Recuerdos # 1
8” x 4” Saggar Fired Ceramic
Recuerdos # 5
12” x 8” Saggar Fired Ceramic
Detail Recuerdos # 5
Recuerdos # 2
14” x 8” Saggar Fired Ceramic
Recuerdos # 2
14” x 8” Saggar Fired Ceramic
Celestial Form #1
10” x 8”. Ceramic
Celestial Form # 2
12” x 8”
Ceramic
Celestial Form # 2
12” x 8” Ceramic
Celestial Form # 3
10” x 8” Ceramic
Celestial Form # 4
12” x 7” Ceramic Saggar Fired
Almita # 2
10” x 4” Ceramic , Gouache
Almita # 3
6” x 4” Ceramic, Gouache
Almita # 3
10” x 6 ” Ceramic, Gouache, Acrylic
El Lindo Pasado ( the beautiful past) 13” x 19” Acrylic on Paper
Fantasmas Milagrosas ( miraculous phantoms) 13” x 19” Acrylic on Paper
Pandemonio (July 2020) 13” x 19” Acrylic on Paper
Mis Cuentos (my stories) 13” x 19” Acrylic on Paper
Sombra. (shadow) 13” x 19” Acrylic on Paper
The Art Snobs circa 2015-16 Dan Murphy Keyboards, Lynn Berkeley Vocals, Guitar and Banjo, Jeff Wilson, Bass and Vocals, RaĂşl Acero Vocals, Guitar, Neo Paris Vocals, Lead guitar