Marked by a unique artistry, David Antonio Cruz's evocative canvases celebrate various aspects of human relationships and emotions, placed at the intersection of historical portraiture and personal narrative. By playing with and subverting the traditional image, Cruz captures the humanity around him in its deepest “truth”, making a place in the art history of gang communities that has long been neglected.
Recently, Cruz has held two major exhibitions, including the recently completed solo show “closer, like before” at Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago and “When the Children Come Home,” which traveled to the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art and Storytelling in. New York after its debut at ICA Philadelphia last year. Both exhibitions showcase works that reflect Cruz's exploration of a broader definition of family connection—a theme he first explored during a violent period in his life. The Chosen Family series. Unlike the natural family or bonds formed through romantic love, the “chosen family,” Cruz explained to the Observer, represents a supportive structure in society, something that became especially prominent during the pandemic when people were expected to “separate themselves from the family.” This made him think about what family means in a country where people are increasingly being displaced and separated from their roots. “They were just a way for you to be there and love someone unconditionally,” Cruz said, referring to a different community support system. “It doesn't come with rules, sex, class, race, or problems; you are my family because you are, and the beauty of it.”
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Cruz aimed to document these support structures, which remain invisible to most of society yet are vital to many people's survival in difficult times. To express this, Cruz's songs often focus on moments of physical connection that, without words, reveal the emotional bonds between his subjects. Her works are deeply empathetic, capturing intimate moments of contact, strength, and support as a celebration of queer relationships. Through this lens, his art transcends specific themes to address a universal unity, which does not require classification or categories. Personal, historical and political, David Antonio Cruz's work offers a profound visual dialogue about the universal feelings of love, support and comfort.
Although Cruz's works are masterfully painted in a hyperrealistic style, the process behind them makes their themes and underlying philosophy even more compelling. Engaging in something like a social experiment, Cruz gathers his subjects in living room settings, inviting them to bring people they consider family, thus creating a partnership between the artist and the subjects. In this capture of stories, personality and sensibility, communication comes through clothes, accessories and expressions. Cruz then portrays his subjects in scenes of physical and emotional intimacy that celebrate human connection across categories. “There is this beautiful intimacy in the world that is important,” he said.
In these collaborative moments, Cruz's role goes beyond the superficial observation of an artist capturing a scene on canvas; His process requires real human contact with his clients, starting with phone conversations and continuing in person. As Cruz explained, this is important in fostering a trust that allows his subjects to share their stories fully, reveal their natural connections and celebrate these powerful links between souls that resonate through the power of art. By connecting deeply and empathetically, Cruz creates human collages of emotion and union, the result of a series of collaborative practices. “Sometimes I even make dinners; I bring food,” he shared. “I feel that cooking can be a way to share and celebrate, especially food, so I do that part of the culture. That's how we say thank you, I see you, and we celebrate this moment together. Sometimes, we go out to eat afterwards. My process is different, depending on the size of the group and the conversation.”
All of Cruz's paintings are fueled by a desire to represent the often untold stories, to celebrate unconditional love, communion, and the resulting joy—shifting the focus away from the drama that dominates mainstream media and equating trauma with joy. In this way, his work constitutes a necessary transition from a reminder of violence to a celebration of joy. In contrast to his earlier works that memorialized criminals who were killed and forgotten, Cruz's current pieces capture happy, intimate moments with people who are alive and deeply connected to them.
At the same time, his work expresses a certain desire to seek a place in art history for people who are often erased from it. “I think about painting and what is done when I think about history and how it corrects time,” said Cruz. “Right now, I think it's very important to prepare people in a way that, at this time, we're talking about a community that may not be discussed in a certain way.”
His evocative use of color and texture further emphasizes how his paintings demand the viewer's attention and demand space for narrative stories. His works are rooted in the tradition of art history, referencing its artists and genres in terms of the shape, composition and use of oil paint itself, yet deliberately subverting Western canons, challenging its inherent biases. According to Cruz, he “prefers to play with and subvert the canon instead of forcing the gatekeepers of art history to gain permission or an invitation to participate in representational discussions.”
The artist's fascination with portraits is personal, influenced by his family background and the loss of all his family portraits at the same time. “Photos hold a great memory, and for me it is very important to fix that moment with a photo,” he said. Unlike a photographer, however, Cruz aims to interpret his scenes, emphasize situations, change clothes and adjust the perspective of the scene to increase the sense of emotional and psychological connection. “I think a lot about how something is made next to something else … how it should be removed, how something takes place, how it separates and how the tension between subjects works. From there, I start to build this whole world around them.”
When arranging these emotional moments, Cruz twists and manipulates his figures into acrobatic feats that evoke Baroque dynamics, deliberately transforming ancient situations within carefully arranged spaces to convey a sense of powerful, intimate interaction between his subjects.
In the exhibition at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum, as he did before at the ICA Philadelphia, this narrative stage takes over and extends into the space, as the artist makes every space between wallpapers and sculptural interventions that connect his personal memories with those. in the communities where he lived. Also included in the exhibition at the Sugar Hill Museum are his “B-side” paper books, which also problematize the tension between representation and erasure, adding another layer of ironic and meditative poetry to the work. These works always include the concreteness of plants recognized as Caribbean as the first thing that can be distinguished but gradually reveals the human presence behind it, appearing at the same time hidden in a tension balanced between hiding and hiding that shows a critical situation.
Ultimately, as those new works reveal, Cruz is interested in capturing not an image of bodies or faces, but a certain Aura. “When I start painting, there is a different reality for me,” he explains, “That's a more honest reality. It's not the face or the eyes. Your spirit. It is that aura, to me, that is true. “Finally, the paintings of David Antonio Cruz participate in a conference that focuses on happiness over suffering, celebrating the possibility of love, joy and beauty beyond the identification of race, gender and culture in order to promote universal communion between people.
Similar to the ICA Philadelphia exhibition, the installation of Cruz's stories at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum extends into the space, creating focal points with wallpaper and sculptures that connect his personal memories with those of the communities in which he lived. This iteration of “When The Children Come Home” includes her 'B-side' on paper, which further explores the tension between representation and erasure, adding a poetic and meditative layer to the show. These pieces often contain the impression of plants recognized as Caribbean primitives, capable of collapsing, gradually revealing traces of human presence behind them. This presence emerges and at the same time hides itself, including the tension between concealment and concealment that gives rise to extraordinary experiences.
Ultimately, as these new works reveal, Cruz is less interested in photographing bodies or faces than in projecting a distinct aura. “When I start painting, there is a different reality for me,” he explained. “That is the most honest truth. It's not the face or the eyes. Your spirit. It is that aura, to me, that is true. “Cruz's paintings, in fact, participate in a conference that focuses on happiness over suffering, envisioning love, happiness and beauty beyond racial, gender, and cultural identities, promoting relationships between people.
“When the Children Come Home” is on view at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art and Storytelling in New York through February 16.
