Gallazo Wey @

MINT, Atlanta GA -

3/4/2023 - 4/1/2023

Press Release:

This exhibition is a series of works that draw upon a time when I was working closely with my father and the family business of framing houses. The materials I employ have surrounded me most of my life, pulling me between fascination and apprehension. They reflect an environment I have grown up in and around, absorbing and resisting what has at times felt like an inescapable fate. These works come from an immense struggle to understand myself and where I come from, a lineage of immigrants who have sacrificed much to realize the present. There is a pride for my family and what they have imbued in me, a resolve that would encounter trials and tribulations and continue to thrive, create and build. A desire to not only build ourselves up but to support and uplift others as well. This is for you, mis primos y primas, mis tios y tias, el rancho, Edel, Sapo, Nicolas, sus hermanos, Chipi, Campeón, Daniel, Pablo Matado, Jose, Sergio, todo los paisas, y la familia aqui y alla. 

Gallazo Wey is a reconciliation with myself and the breaking away from family tradition while simultaneously embracing that part of me I have always struggled to understand and accept. This show exposes the complicated tensions that exist within myself, and the unshakable feeling of familial destiny which weaves through me and shakes me to my core.

photos taken by Michael Shepherd