Honoring the masters: Albuquerque-based artist Brandon Maldonado finds inspiration for work through history

Brandon Maldonado is forever a student.

The Albuquerque-based artist’s time researching santero work has led him to the stories of the past.

“I’m always buying books and learning more about the history of the art,” Maldonado says. “I started seeing some punk rock elements to their style. They were innovating and decomposing a composition to the essential elements. It’s abstraction before Picasso and modern art came along.”

The lessons learned are the foundation for Maldonado’s latest show, “Cuentos Nuevomexicanos Dos,” which is currently on display at Lapis Room in Old Town. The exhibit runs through Jan. 8. There will also be an opening reception from 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7.

There will be 13 pieces from Maldonado which range from smaller size retablo pieces to large scale.

“It feels like the museum show it was intended for,” he says. “These originally showed in St. Louis and I had to add new pieces to round it out.”

Maldonado says the body of work reflects the exploration that has roots in the graphic drawings of his early 20s.

“In these recent works, I use more graphic rendering and simplified forms as with a tendency to flood areas of the picture plane with mesmerizing, repetitive lines attempting to give the pieces a somewhat psychedelic aspect,” Maldonado says. “There is also a wide assortment of stylistic influences on these works, like a cook in the kitchen, I throw ingredients in the gumbo pot: a touch of Picasso-esque cubism on top of traditional New Mexican santero folk art aesthetics and a hefty helping of the hypnotic repetitious patterning of celebrated outsider artist Martín Ramírez. All these ingredients combine with the ever-present elements from New Mexican history and culture. To some, these influences may seem too vast, but the more you look at them, you see the thread that connects them all. It is the free spirit we see when looking at children’s artwork, which is also present in Picasso’s abstract explorations, or things the art world categorizes as folk or outsider art.”

The Denver native was raised in Albuquerque and was first exposed to art through graffiti.

He says the culturally rich environment of New Mexico made a lasting impact on his work, which often explores themes associated with Mexican culture.

Being primarily of northern New Mexico descent, Maldonado has a fascination with the history and culture of the land, as well as its living and historical ties to the story of Mexico and its mestizo legacy.

Honoring the masters: Albuquerque-based artist Brandon Maldonado finds inspiration for work through history

“Each piece has a little panel talking about the history behind the piece,” he says. “As I get older, I begin to understand so much more about culture and history. All the pieces have personal connections.”

Maldonado will also be the guest artist for SIP Cielo at Lapis Room on Jan. 19.