“Rastros” (2024) is a series of truck piñatas made from solo auto magazines found in Houston to explore themes of accumulation, car culture, and familial histories of labor through constructing piñatas.
In Miami, a rastro is a self-service junkyard where customers can remove auto parts they need from lined-up cars. I witnessed my father go to the rastro every weekend to gather, collect, and install parts for our family car. I saw my late mother make piñatas with family and friends in Honduras. My family’s intergenerational practice of making, sorting, and collecting materials in locations like the rastro represents a broad spectrum of interactions with objects, memories, people, and places and invites viewers to consider their relationship with accumulation.
Sue Montoya
Sue Montoya (1990) was born in Los Angeles, California and raised between Tegucigalpa, Honduras and Miami, Florida. She received a BFA from New World in Visual Arts in 2014, and her MFA from the University of Florida in May 2018. She has exhibited in Berlin (Radialsystem), Mexico City (FainFeria), and Miami (CIFO). She has completed artist residencies at 4Most gallery in Gainesville, FL, Home+Away at Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, CO, SOMA Summer 2019, Radio 28 in Mexico City, and Home+Away at Artpace in San Antonio, TX. She was shortlisted for the Frankenthaler Climate Art Awards in 2022 for Change Atlas, a transmedia exhibition exploring climate change in Miami. In March 2024, she attended an Artist in Residence at the Flower Shop in Brownsville, TX.
Website: www.suemontoya.com
Instagram: @suemontoya