Esteban Cabeza de Baca grew up in San Ysidro, a San Diego district along the US-Mexico border, but ventured across regularly to visit relatives. So perhaps it’s unsurprising that his paintings and installations also straddle the line between absolutes—abstraction and figuration, the present and the past. Inspired in turn by history, science fiction, natural landscapes and his own Mexican heritage, Esteban uses art to address American colonialism, identity, displacement, and the nuances of living between two cultures. A graduate of Cooper Union and Columbia University, he’s exhibited in New York, Amsterdam, and Cologne, among other cities.
