Venancio Aragon

Aug 23

Written By Admin

KEEPERS

In Venancio Aragon’s rainbow tapes- tries, tradition and innovation become warp and weft. Navajo weaving is a technique that dates back hundreds of years, passed down from genera- tion to generation. Aragon learned the skills from his mother, who is also a practicing weaver. He weaves tech- nicolor compositions in a signature style he calls the “Expanded Rainbow Aesthetic,” using an upright tension loom, a piece of ancient Indigenous technology. Through an untraditional polychromatic color palette consisting of over 250 synthetically and naturally hand-dyed yarn colors, bold geometric design, and an unrestrictive approach to expression, he experiments with techniques to preserve critical elements of his heritage while providing updates with his unique flare.

Aragon also teaches the discipline to ensure the survival of this critical cultural tradition through a decolonized lens. Although he primarily makes experimental compositions, water and meteorological phenomena are often the subject matter of his work. His distorted or pixelated saturated tapestries thrive in the era of social media as they appear as if they are undergoing an optical illusion akin to digital glitches. The work pro- claims Indigeneity in the present tense. Aragon’s practice is, as he describes it, a “living record”1 to carry his family’s and community’s legacy into the future.

B. 1985, Navajo Nation/Diné, Shiprock, NM
Lives and works in Farmington, NM

venancioaragon.com
@aragontextiles