Ruinas deals with issues of collective memory, historical trauma, and identity. Utilizing mixed media drawing techniques, Castillo applies various motifs found in pre-Hispanic mythology, Salvadoran popular folklore, Catholic iconography, and references from Western art history to culminate in a hybridized aesthetic of historic, cultural, and personal experiences. Issues of migration, violence, and indigenous knowledge unique to El Salvador's living memory are prominent in his work.

Drawn with great delicacy and a rich, almost romantic palette, Castillo's drawings do not hesitate to collide abrupt and startling images into new hybrids—at once disruptive and disturbing while simultaneously evoking a lush eloquence. Concocted as narratives, his drawings are non-linear in aspect and intuitively construct memory as a mechanism of personal myth-making within which politics and modes of resistance can speak to a process of reconciliation, repair and healing.

curated by John Massier

Exhibition link : https://www.hallwalls.org/visual/6294.html