Joya: AiR / Eric Araujo / USA

“An adventure in magnitudes and minutia. Like The Powers of Ten, Joya lets you know just how small you really are. There’s a clarifying silence that swaddles the valley and abates the limits of your senses. Gazing through the horizon, depth is abstract, shapes of greens, blues, greys and subtle pinks mix, float, and flatten. In July the Sun commands. There’s a tempo to align with as the rhythm of the day is gripped by the heat. Cool mornings offer the landscape and the possibility to traverse the barranco below or engage with studio practice. Come midday it seems the world has paused. As the sun sets beyond the mound, the wind picks up and a calm has come to the day. It is this feeling of tranquilidad that I left Joya with and now attempt to maintain as I’ve returned home to New York City.

I went to Joya without intention. I sought to decompress, slow down, process, and gain awareness and experience for how it is possible to live and thrive with climate consciousness on remote depopulated land and simultaneously give back to that land. Simon and Donna have breathed life into a place that saw past generations walk away from, their cortijo is the nucleus of a climate positive enclave that welcomes a diverse group of creatives into an intimate setting. Without distraction I made watercolors, pencil and pen drawings, clay and driftwood sculptures, and transformed some old bamboo shades into piles of lattice I then wove into sculptural forms. I slept well, wrote, read, and shared stories and healthy “Ricisima” meals with my cohort, it was an invaluable experience and I am incredibly grateful to Simon and Donna for their relaxed spirits and jovial gracious hospitality”.

Eric Araujo - estadounidense/Nueva York

AiR: July 10-24th, 2023

Eric Araujo is an interdisciplinary artist from New York. His practice extends across various mediums such as sculpture, drawing, and public practices. Eric received his BFA from Pratt Institute and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Eric’s work has been shown in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, the di Rosa Preserve in Napa Valley, the Canzani Center Gallery at Columbus College of Art and Design, Johannson Projects in Oakland CA, BRIC Arts Brooklyn and Raritan Valley Community College in NJ. In Spring of 2017 he was the sculpture fellow at The Bascom Center for the Arts in Highlands, NC where he created 3 large-scale permanent outdoor public works, and during the summer of 2018 Eric collaborated with the artist Danh Vo on new sculptures that were exhibited at the SMK in Copenhagen.
Most recently from November 2022 - January 2023 Eric had a solo exhibition of his most recent body of sculpture and wall works with Chashama in NYC. For 10 years he served as Adjunct Assistant Professor of 3D Design, Sculpture and Drawing at Raritan Valley Community College. He is currently the Mount Maker for the Museum of Modern Art.

Simon Beckmann9 August 2023