Pachi Muruchu’s solo exhibition Tinkuy: Converging Ecologies culminates his time as an A.I.R. at The Latinx Project. The works displayed are a selection of paintings and collages that explore the artist's personal and political relationships to New York City’s ecology. The title of the exhibition Tinkuy, is based on a Kichwa word that loosely translated, means a type of convergence between two things that ultimately create a flow. The exhibition expands on the artist's relationship to New York City’s indigenous histories offering poetic and bold statements about the seamless coexistence of urban life and indigeneity. A deep connection to the land is reflected through his representation of interspecies subjectivities between plants and people close to him. Informed by his research on Lenape and Andean histories Pachi composes meaningful portraits where stories about plant ecologies between Ecuador, New York City, and the Bronx live. The artist creates new worlds and lives through his paintings that help us to appreciate the materiality of Tinkuy in New York City.
By dying fabric and digging into local plant ecologies, and referencing his indigenous Kichwa roots. Pachi encourages us to think about the relationships we sustain with one another and the natural world. The natural flora and fauna embedded in the imagery are entangled with people close to him. In these profound images, the artist orients us towards a commons embedded in the urban life of Mannahatta. Pachi’s work encourages us to consider a Mannahatta that is rich and vibrant with natural plant ecologies, a Mannahatta that is honored and stewarded by the original indigenous Lenape inhabitants and by the many other indigenous people across the Americas who have made it their home. Pachi’s work is a constant reminder of the histories, narratives, and vibrant life that exists in our everyday lives, ultimately tying us all together.
“Art represents the living subjectivity of a people. It is meant to guide our interactions with the material world. Cultural objects are our inheritance of the knowledge and relationships our ancestors intimately held. Today it is passed on to us with hands soaked in the soil and grime of our urbanized Landscape.” - Pachi Muruchu
thumbnail credit: An Allegory for your Mind (Mpisun), Oil on Canvas, 9 x 12 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Gallery Hours :
285 Mercer Street,
New York, New York, 10003
Tuesday - Friday
11am - 5pm