On August 9th, 2024, El Espacio 23 held an Open Studio for its Artists in Residence, Manuel Chavajay + Cheen, Alina Aguila and Orestes Hernandez.

Manuel Chavajay + Cheen are Mayan-Tz’utujil artists from Guatemala who see contemporary art as a space for healing. As an indigenous artist, Manuel has sought to construct images of denunciation and vindication of his culture in his practice. Cheen is a Maya Tz-utujil poet and artist whose practice directly engages with her community, reviving ancient thoughts and applying them in our current context.

Orestes Hernandez’s work uses objects, spaces, ideas and images that are absurd to each other but at the same time coexist in some mental space, to dismantle the artistic reality in the search of new ways of facing creation.

Alina Aguila’s work exposes a withdrawal, manipulation and concern for the minute details of the object and its perception by distorting the relationship of individual matter and space, altering the scales both physically and psychologically.