Harold Mendez: A sentence, or a spell

Commonwealth and Council presents its first solo show with the Los Angeles-based artist Harold Mendez, currently on view through February 25. “A sentence, or a spell” explores colonialism, capitalism, and diasporic migration in the Americas through multifaceted sculptures, drawings, and assemblage. In a meaningful and imaginative inquiry of the remnants of such historical narratives on mind and body, as well as in the everyday objects that fill our lives, Mendez offers utterly unique creations, abstract vessels with bone-like extremities, and shells of jagged spikes that were composed of materials like calf-weaning nose rings and funerary headrests. Cast in brass and iron, resembling burial artifacts, the artist probes into life and death across time and space. Central to the exhibition was Mendez’s journey in discovering the grave of the late Cuban artist Belkis Ayon. Though the location of the grave continues to be a mystery, the artist’s travels were of great self-discovery.