Between Us
Group BFA graduate exhibition at the Francis McCray Gallery, Silver City, NM
April 23rd- May 7th 2026Nayeli Mancilla
This summer, I participated in a 12 week apprenticeship program that introduced me to ideas and concepts I had never encountered before, including practices of reclaiming workforce development through cultural, economic, and ecological restoration.
I brought that inspiration into the studio and continued reflecting. Through that reflection, I turned to oil painting as a way to process what I was taking in. I often worked from heightened emotional states, and the process became intuitive and cathartic, away to move energy through making. The paintings began to center on the kind of world we build through our daily rhythms. I think about which actions feel reciprocal and which feel extractive, and how those patterns shape our relationships to each other and the world around us.
As I work, I let the paintings respond to one another through color, symbolism, and form. Meaning builds across the body of work from profane gesture to soft cerulean blue highlights, through their relationship to each other. I hope the work that came from this experience continues to carry its significance forward.
