Juxtapoz Magazine – Esteban Samayoa: Cancer Sun, Cancer Moon

 

Shaquille Heath: How have you been taking care of yourself lately and where are you finding joy right now?

Esteban Samayoa: I’ve been kind of just trying to take all this time to connect with myself emotionally, mentally, and physically. Trying to take care of my body more. Work out, eat well, and be outside. But you know I’m still working hard. Lately, it seems like things have been working more in my favor. So that’s definitely like a relief for me. All that just brings me a lot of joy.

 

You’ve had a lot of great shows over this past year. You just wrapped your exhibition, A Life Like Ours, at Swim Gallery. How do you feel about it?

Yesterday, actually, I de-installed everything. There were some pieces that were sold, so those were all gone. That show was really amazing. I feel like I got a lot of good feedback from it. You know, I had a lot of fun. It felt like everyone who was there was family, and people were just really connecting with one another.

 

Can you talk to me about how you chose the pieces in the show, and how you brought everything together for that?

I mean, with everything going on the last couple of years, I felt like I wanted to kind of bring our communities together. You know, just tell more stories of different colors and shared interests. 

 

I really wanted to make the gallery space comfortable, and make it a safe spot for everybody. So even when you read the name, A Life Like Ours, you feel included in that. And when you went to the show, you’d see different people on the walls. I have people that inspire me up there–people I grew up with, old family photos I grew up looking at every day at my grandma’s house. So, being able to tell all the stories from different people, all types of people were able to relate to it. 

 

Like, for instance, I painted the gallery all red, because my work is black and white, and I wanted it to pop out. And, in making it all red, I wanted folks to feel powerful in the space. Because usually you go into an all white gallery, you know, and you kind of just get lost in all the white space. But when people took pictures of themselves inside the spot, they looked so good because everything was red… their whole outfit popped out. They popped out as people, you know.

 

I also put a domino table in the center of the gallery that was interactive so you could go play right there. And that was another thing, because my uncles grew up playing that. Me and my friends grew up playing that, just drinking beer or whatever, and that was our time to kind of just kick it and talk shit, or do whatever. But, usually, when you go to a gallery, you look at the pieces and keep it moving. So it was cool that people were able to sit in the middle of the gallery, and bond over a domino game. And kind of just talk shit to each other, or whatever, because everyone thinks they’re the best at dominos. Everybody. So there was a big crowd just hyping each other up. A lot of people didn’t even know each other and they were playing, so it was cool.