Professor Esteban Cabeza de Baca '14 Presents 'Pollinators' at Garth Greenan Gallery

Alum and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Esteban Cabeza de Baca '14 recently opened his third show with Garth Greenan Gallery, Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Pollinators. 

Born in San Ysidro, CA and based in Queens, Cabeza de Baca reenvisions landscape painting as an encounter between humans and their environment. Informed by his upbringing in a border town with Chicano and Mexican parents who were active in the United Farm Workers, Cabeza de Baca interrupts his en plein air depictions of the American Southwest with motifs inspired by graffiti and Mesoamerican petroglyphs and in situ materials like soil from Colorado and indigo dye from Mexico.

The titular "pollinator"—a bright green pod-shaped figure ​​modeled after a Maize God depicted on a 500–900 CE Mayan whistle—appears throughout the paintings as a symbol of natural ecological resistance to manmade borders.

This sentiment is echoed by Cabeza de Baca's cast-bronze native North American plants—milkweed, echinacea, sunflower, and aster—emerging from the exhibition's center. Liquid metal, in a sense, has pollinated the plants, creating a hybrid form.

While the natural patina and gritty texture of the sculptures contrasts with Cabeza de Baca's flat, brightly colored canvases, the works undoubtedly belong to the same speculative world—a world shaped by Indigenous knowledge, where distinctions like "individual" or "ecological" are no longer relevant.

Among Cabeza de Baca's awards are a Stern Fellowship, Columbia University (2013); a Stokroos Foundation Grant (2017); a NYFA Painting Fellowship (2021); and a Civitella Ranieri Visual Art Fellowship (2024). His numerous solo exhibitions include Worlds without Borders, Boers-Li Gallery (2019, New York); Nepantla, Garth Greenan Gallery, (2021, New York); Let Earth Breathe, The Momentary Museum (2022, Bentonville); Alma, Garth Greenan Gallery (2023, New York); and Cesar’s Angels, Parker Gallery (2024, Los Angeles). He has participated in over 20 group exhibitions at venues such as the Leroy Neiman Art Center (2014, 2015, New York), the Yale University School of Sacred Music (2017, New Haven, CT), the Dutch Royal Palace (2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands), the Drawing Center (2019, New York), MoCA Tucson (2023, Tucson), and Newchild Gallery (2024, Antwerp).

Pollinators is on view January 8–February 21, 2026 at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York, NY.