Skip to content

Esteban Cabeza de Baca

Esteban Cabeza de Baca - Artists - Garth Greenan Gallery

Born in San Ysidro, CA in 1985, Esteban Cabeza de Baca received a BFA from Cooper Union, School of the Arts in 2010 and an MFA from Columbia University in 2014. He currently lives and works between Queens, NYC, and the Southwestern United States.

Cabeza de Baca’s childhood hometown of San Ysidro virtually straddled the U.S.–Mexico border, as did his family. His father and Mexican-born mother were active participants in the Brown Berets, as well as the Chicano, American Indian, and Black Panther movements. Of Mexican and Native American heritage himself, Cabeza de Baca was heavily influenced by the border town’s liminal position, and by his parents, whose intersectional political awareness and respect for human dignity led them to shelter undocumented migrants in their basement during his youth.

In his work, Cabeza de Baca employs a broad range of painterly techniques, entwining layers of graffiti, landscape, and pre-Columbian pictographs in ways that confound Cartesian single-point perspective. His influences range from petroglyphs, from which many of his motifs derive, to Jackson Pollock, who, the artist notes, was in turn influenced by Navajo sand painting. “I want to excavate the impact of colonial acts like that,” he notes. “To go farther with the drip than Pollock did and collide the infinite with the everyday.”

He often begins his works en plein air, recasting the practice of landscape painting, which was once the preferred surveying tool of colonizers. His compisitions often include a spiral, fragmenting perspectival cohesion, and foregrounding the ancient, universal shape. Cabeza de Baca’s hybrid techniques and influences form a complex braid: interrogating the dialectical relationships between colonialism and its critique, between cultural extraction and its inversion.

Cabeza de Baca has received numerous grants and awards including, a Robert Gamblin Painting Grant (2013); a Stern Fellowship, Columbia University (2013); a Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program Award (2014); a Stokroos Foundation Grant (2017); a Henk en Victoria de Heus Fellowship (2018); a NYFA Painting Fellowship (2021); and a Civitella Ranieri Visual Art Fellowship (2024). His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, such as: Bluer Than a Sky Weeping Bones, Gaa Gallery, (2016, Provincetown, MA); Unlearn, Fons Welters Gallery, (2018, Amsterdam); Verano, with Heidi Howard, Gaa Gallery, (2018, Wellfleet, MA); Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Gaa Projects (2019, Cologne); Worlds without Borders, Boers-Li Gallery (2019, New York); Esteban Cabeza de Baca – Life is one drop in lim­it­less oceans … , Kunstfort Vijfhuizen, (2019, Amsterdam); Nepantla, Garth Greenan Gallery, (2021, New York); Let Earth Breathe, The Momentary Museum (2022, Bentonville); Alma, Garth Greenan Gallery (2023, New York); West of Federal, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (2023, Denver); and Cesar’s Angels, Parker Gallery (2024, Los Angeles). He has participated in over 20 group exhibitions at venues such as the Leroy Neiman Art Center (2014, 2015, New York), the Yale University School of Sacred Music (2017, New Haven, CT), the Dutch Royal Palace (2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands), the Drawing Center (2019, New York), MoCA Tucson (2023, Tucson), and Newchild Gallery (2024, Antwerp) among others.

Watch Art21's Close Up, Esteban Cabeza de Baca's Time Travels, here.  

Esteban Cabeza de Baca

 

1985
Born in San Ysidro, California

Lives and works in Queens, New York


EDUCATION

2010
Cooper Union, School of the Arts, New York, New York

2014
Columbia University, School of the Arts, New York, New York

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016
Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Bluer Than a Sky Weeping Bones, Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 27–July 6

2018
Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Unlearn, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, Netherlands, January 27–March 10

2019
Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Gaa Gallery Projects, Cologne, Germany, April 4–August 3, 2019
Worlds Without Borders, Boers-Li Gallery, New York, New York, April 5–June 15
Two Wampum Row, De Nederlandische Banke, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 14–July 25
Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Life is One Drop in Limitless Oceans…, Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, Vijfhuizen, Netherlands, October 19–December 15

2021
Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Nepantla, Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, New York, January 14–March 20
Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 2–August 2

2022
Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Let Earth Breathe, The Momentary, Bentonville, Arkansas, April 23–September 25

2023
Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Alma, Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, June 8–July 21, 2023

2024
Esteban Cabeza de Baca: West of Federal, Rocky Mountain College of Art of Design, Denver, Colorado, February 6–March 22, 2024
Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Cesar’s Angels, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, May 11–June 8, 2024

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2010
Powers That Be, 41 Cooper Union Gallery, New York, New York, March 30–April 3

2013
1st Year Show, Wallach Gallery, Columbia University, New York, New York, April 6–20
Magical Thinking, 177 Livingston, Brooklyn, New York

2014
United Against Speculation, Leroy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York,New York, March 7–April 10
MFA Thesis Exhibit, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, Queens, New York, April 27–May 19
I ♥ Paint, Angell Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 8–June 7

2015
Manhatta Today: Indigenous Art of N.Y.C., Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Art Center, New York, New York, October 13–December 19
Drums Along the Hudson, Indian Road Café, New York, New York

2015–2016
Scent, Dickinson Gallery, New York, New York, December 15, 2015–January 12, 2016

2016
The Narrative Figure, David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 13–July 4
Summertime, Gaa Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, May 28–June 29
Outside & Inside Landscape, Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, Maine, October 14–November 26
Home/Not Home on the Water: Early American Currents of Animacy, Disability, and Ecology, Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado, November 17

2017
The Complexities of Unity, Yale University Institute of Sacred Music, New Haven, Connecticut, March 29–June 13
Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Rodney Dickson, Kenneth Dunne, Sophia Hamann, Barry Stone, Ena Swansea, and Erin Woodbrey, Gaa Gallery Projects, Cologne, Germany, March 29–June 13
SPRING 2017, Gaa Cologne Project Space, Cologne, Germany, April 23–May 28
Heidi Howard + Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Summertime, Gaa Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, September 2–November 25

2018
Concurrent Realities, Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, January 12–April 28
Against Forgetting I, Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 25–July 10
Against Forgetting II, Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 26–July 1
New Acquisitions, Nederlandische Bank, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2018–2019
Hold, Run, Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, November 10, 2018–January 26, 2019

2019
Zeit-Geist-Zeit, Gaa Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, August 3–September 21
What’s Love Got to Do With It?, The Drawing Center, New York, New York, August 16–September 15
At Sea, Dorsky Gallery, New York, New York, September 29–December 8
Unlocal Benefit, Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, New York, October 16–19

2019–2020
Wasteland: Open Sessions 16, The Drawing Center, New York, New York, November 15, 2019–January 5, 2020
Keith Mayerson: Friends And Family, Peter Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena, California, November 23, 2019–January 4, 2020
Memory Slips, Gaa Projects Cologne, Cologne, Germany, November 28, 2019–January 5, 2020

2021
Land Akin, Smack Mellon, New York, New York, January 9–March 7

2022
Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Let Earth Breathe, The Momentary, Bentonville, Arkansas, April 23–September 25
Dream Life, BB&M, Seoul, Korea, May 21–July 2
Spring Hill Arts Gathering, K Art, Buffalo, New York, June 16–19

2022–2023
Plein Air, Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, May 14, 2022–February 5, 2023.
Denver Art Museum, Gio Ponti 7th Floor Expansion, Denver, Colorado

2023
Light from Water: Heidi Howard & Esteban Cabeza de Baca with Liz Phillips, Wave Hill, New York, New York, August 29–November 26, 2023

2023–2024
Old Ghost New Light, Dinner Gallery, New York, New York, November 16–January 13, 2024

2024
The Salt of Two Seas, Newchild Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium, March 22–May 2, 2024
Esteban Cabeza de Baca & Heidi Howard: Night & Day Dreams, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, Colorado, August 22–September 28, 2024

2024–2025
Flow States – LA TRIENAL 2024, El Museo del Barrio, New York, New York, October 10, 2024–February 9, 2025

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, California

Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York

Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts

 

BOOKS AND CATALOGUES

Gaa Gallery. Josephine Halvorson + Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Correspondences. Provincetown: Gaa Gallery, 2021.

Wave Hill. Light from Water: Heidi Howard & Esteban Cabeza de Baca with Liz Phillips. New York: Wave Hill, 2023.

 

PERIODICALS

Bishara, Hakim. “92 New York Artists Receive $616,000 in Grants.” Hyperallergic, July 13, 2021.

Corrigan, Patricia. “The Momentary Broadens the Definition of ‘Museum’ in Arkansas.” Next Avenue, May 26, 2022.

Edgington, Colin. “Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Worlds Without Borders.” Brooklyn Rail, June 2019.

———. ” Esteban Cabeza de Baca with Colin Edgington.” Brooklyn Rail, May 2022. “The Internal Place.” Southwest Contemporary, August 26, 2022.

Ghassemitari, Shawn. “BB&M Gallery Presents ‘Dream Life’.” Hypebeast, June 27, 2022.

Gluibizzi, Amanda. “Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Nepantla.” Brooklyn Rail, March 2021: 61.

Kazanjian, Dodie. “Many Artists Began Painting Outside During the Pandemic—And They Might Never Go Back.” Vogue, September 15, 2021.

Krajnak, Tara. “Interview of Esteban Cabeza de Baca.” Bomb Magazine: 166. Winter 2024.

Majumdar, Sangram. “An ocean of rivers: Esteban Cabeza de Baca.” Two Coats of Paint, May 24, 2019.

Martin, Philip. “CRITICAL MASS: The Momentary, a Crystal Bridges sister museum, puts American art in conversation.” Arkansas Democrat Gazette, May 29, 2022.

McQuaid, Cate. “Layers of heritage and history in paint.” Boston Globe, July 22, 2021.

“MFA Annual #111.” New American Paintings, April 2014 / May 2014.

Mitter, Siddhartha. “Four Artists to Watch Now.” New York Times, April 25, 2019.

Siddhartha, Mitter. “Four Artists to Watch.” New York Times, April 25, 2019.

Trimble, Lynn, “Plein Aire Challenges Assumptions and Aesthetics at MOCA Tuscon.” Southwest Contemporary, February 5, 2023.