Last Thursday, The Rusteberg Art Gallery hosted self-concepts, a solo art exhibit created by Josie Del Castillo, a UTRGV Master of Fine Arts student. The exhibit contains twenty-three paintings, it is free of charge and open to the public.
Del Castillo says her art with the focus on creating awareness about mental health issues.
This whole body of work also focuses on mental health, I struggle with mental health… so focusing in that theme helped me like: Oh, I have this, and this is a way to cope with it…
Through her paintings, del Castillo addresses other themes as well, such as Mexican-American culture, the female body and self-acceptance. Self-Concepts is displaying a variety of paintings, including self-portraits, local landscapes, paintings of friends and family members, as well as a presentation of Josie’s work bench in the middle of the exhibit.
Lecturer for the School of Art, and Gallery Director the Rusteberg Art Gallery, Julian Rodriguez says how the University should continue promote art.
I think it’s important for the University to promote art because in a lot of cases artists are the eyes of the world, you know once you get away from … the news media, you can learn a lot from what is going on in society.
The exhibit sold custom t-shirts imprinted with del Castillo’s paintings.
Electrical Engineering Junior, Estefania Espinoza says that it is important for the community to support local artists.
Creo que es super importante, no? digo si nosotros mismo no apoyamos a la gente misma de aqui, pues quien? Es importante como darles el reconocimiento de que pues vienen de aqui, del mismo lugar que nosotros…
Spanish Spoken
I think it is super important, right? I mean, if we do not support the people from our community, then who will? It is important to give them their recognition that they come from the place as ourselves…
English Translation
For more information on Del Castillo’s work visits josiedelcastillo.com. The Rusteberg Art Gallery is located at 21-01 Gorgas Drive at Brownsville. Self-Concepts exhibit will continue to be on display at the Rusteberg Art Gallery until March 22nd.
Reporter Victor Rivero
