Forget Me Not, Forgive Me Not

Caroline Liu and Moises Salazar explore concepts of fragmented identity and loss through vivid and loud displays of color. As both artists touch very deeply on the pieces of themselves forgotten or erased, this exhibition will shed light on overcoming disability, oppression, and one of the biggest socio-cultural issues facing our country today.

Through her art Liu seeks to explore her identity after suffering from an accident causing her permanent short term memory loss. Much of her work is repetitive and layered with images of people, things and objects from her daily life she wishes not to forget, interspersed with surreal caricatures melding together fantasy and reality. Liu uses her art to expose disabilities that remain hidden and uses art as a platform to hold conversation and space for collective reflection. Liu also explores the influence of color on mood, touch, and how the senses aid in memory function through her use of tactile paintings covered in fur, and soft sculptures.

Salazar explores the intersections of their Mexican and American identities through a queer lens. By juxtaposing crochet and glitter, the work alludes to forming a new identity while maintaining tradition and cultural roots, yet also challenging them. Salazar’s work orbits between being stripped of identity by their family and their nation, and striking a new identity through self ideation. By addressing issues of queerness through their play on Mexican heritage and American modernity through Brillo Putx, and immigration through their haunting sculptures of children and immigrants in ICE detention centers in Cuerpo Desechables, Salazar speaks on complicated narratives through figurative expression unapologetically.

Forget Me Not/Forgive Me Not, is a show about two artists unfolding the intimacies related to self discovery, and how art can be a vessel for understanding how the self interacts within the world at large.