In his debut solo museum exhibition Raíces/Roots, De Lara presents works that retrace his Mexican roots following a recent return to his childhood home after nearly 20 years in the U.S. — a long-awaited visit complicated by his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. Across the SCAD Museum of Art’s Jewel Box vitrines, De Lara arranges tufted wooden chairs and construction cranes that honor his family’s history of craftsmanship, alongside modular, kinetic sculptures of cacti and monstera plants that embody his transnational, peregrine journey. Comparatively, the artist’s rocking chairs and slouching fieldwork tools evoke the precarity, manual labor, and disappointments faced by undocumented immigrants pursuing the “American Dream.” In sharing these cherished and whimsical yet difficult and often inexplicable life moments, De Lara offers insight into his story, while inspiring curiosity and connection with each other and the objects that surround us.
Raul De Lara
'Raíces/Roots'
New York-based Mexican artist Raul De Lara carves uncanny, playful wooden sculptures imbued with personal and culturally significant stories to celebrate and foster a deeper understanding of the immigrant experience. Through traditional and innovative woodworking techniques, De Lara combines forms from nature, furniture design, and Mexican and American material culture to examine notions of nationality and identity. Championing a practice of “storytelling through woodworking,” De Lara weaves magical realism and symbolic items, like zompantle wood and Tz’ite beans, into his works to convey memories of his upbringing, Mesoamerican legends and rituals, and even paranormal encounters.
New York-based Mexican artist Raul De Lara carves uncanny, playful wooden sculptures imbued with personal and culturally significant stories to celebrate and foster a deeper understanding of the immigrant experience. Through traditional and innovative woodworking techniques, De Lara combines forms from nature, furniture design, and Mexican and American material culture to examine notions of nationality and identity. Championing a practice of “storytelling through woodworking,” De Lara weaves magical realism and symbolic items, like zompantle wood and Tz’ite beans, into his works to convey memories of his upbringing, Mesoamerican legends and rituals, and even paranormal encounters.
About the artist
New York-based sculptor Raul De Lara (b. 1991, Sinaloa, México) explores the emotive and storytelling potential of materials such as wood, stone, sand, steel, and leather. Fond of humor, magical realism, and the uncanny, he references the visual languages found in flora, furniture design, and cultural artifacts. De Lara immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. at age 12 and has been a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient since 2012. After eight years of undocumented status, he is currently still unable to freely travel outside the country. De Lara’s work reflects on ideas of nationality, queer identity, and the immigrant experience. In addition to his artistic practice, De Lara’s research preserves, honors, and propels forward traditional uses of wood in Mexican and American culture in combination with new developments in the global industry of woodworking.
De Lara received his M.F.A. in sculpture and extended media from Virginia Commonwealth University and a B.F.A. in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin. Select honors include the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, Art in America’s “New Talent” Top 20 Artists to Watch, the Hermès Paris inaugural Aspen installation, the Maxwell/Hanrahan Award in Craft, the Penland Winter Residency Distinguished Fellowship, the Silver Art Projects Residency, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency, the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Open Studio Residency, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Fellowship, the National Park Service Outer Cape Artists in Residency Consortium, the Ox-Bow School of Art Fellowship, the Chicago Artists Coalition HATCH Residency, the Queens Arts Fund New Work Grant, the New York City Artist Corps Grant, and the International Sculpture Center Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.
Credits
Raíces/Roots is organized by SCAD Museum of Art assistant curator Haley Clouser and presented as part of SCAD deFINE ART 2025.
