Erick Medel’s embroidered works touch on everyday life in Los Angeles, particularly speaking on the Mexican-American experience. Medel’s sewing machine serves as a drawing tool in which each mark is made separately. The work vacillates in form between sculpture, painting, and craft. His approach is intuitive and spontaneous, with his hands guiding the fabric while the machine perforates and threads the images. The process is laborious and painstakingly detailed, serving as a constant reminder of the immigrant labor surrounding him. The colors of weathered hand-painted murals draping over local stores influence his color palette and his work is a constant exploration of what it means to exist and navigate identity in two worlds. Medel received his Master’s in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018.

ATX Barrio Archive is a social media-based community archiving project dedicated to preserving, sharing, and celebrating the culture and history of Austin’s working-class, Black and Latinx neighborhoods. In addition to publishing archival photographs and ephemera, the account serves as a digital space for lifelong residents to share family photos and memories of life in the “barrios” of Austin. The project was created in 2016 by community archivist and native Austinite Alan Garcia in response to the rapid gentrification of historic Black and Latinx communities and the demolition of beloved neighborhood landmarks. By creating an accessible, digital archive of Austin’s “barrio,” or working-class neighborhoods, the project has gained praise from longtime East Austin residents who participate by sharing their neighborhood history. ATX Barrio Archive’s work pays tribute to the preservation efforts of East Austin community leaders who came before. And while too few East Austin landmarks are protected by historic designations at the city and state level, the project celebrates and remembers East Austin’s “barrio landmarks,” some gone but not forgotten, and all worthy of preservation.