MISMO Coachella Music and Arts Festival Indio, California 2019
Photos by Lancer Gerber
SOFIA ENRIQUEZ, MISMO, 2019
Locally-based artist and fashion designer Sofia Enriquez goes three-dimensional with a garden of six massive paisleys — one of the motifs in the graphic vocabulary she uses on her canvases and murals, as well as her line of upcycled clothing that she sells under the label Mucho. “Everybody wears paisleys: guys, girls, young people and old people, and people of different cultures,” Enriquez says. “It can be found on a cotton bandana worn by someone doing manual labor to someone wearing a business suit with a silk tie. It’s a symbol that makes the equality in people stand out,” which is a theme that runs through all of the artist’s work. The paisleys, which are constructed with wood and range in height from fourteen to eighteen feet, read like double-sided paintings and are painted in bright, bold colors to contrast with the desert’s muted and pastel tones. The sculpture in the center of the garden has a platform with large steps where festival goers can meet and relax — and possibly glimpse models wearing Mucho clothing.
Sofia Enriquez’s paintings and murals, with her signature, Modigliani-esque female faces floating in colorful fields with paisleys and text, assert a subtle message that promotes feminism and racial equality. The Cathedral City-based artist also paints her distinctive iconography — cell phones, dollar signs, eyes, bottles, lips, words, and phrases — onto a line of upcycled clothing under the name Mucho.
Hawai’i State Art Museum Presents: MUCHO BOTÁNICA Art Installation Honolulu, Hawai’i 2021
