Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA), Anythink Libraries and Denver artist Diego Florez-Arroyo are bringing art for and about Adams County to residents.
Visitors to Anythink’s Commerce City, Bennett and Thornton branches this fall will encounter “Recontextualized Roots,” a three-part art installation by Florez-Arroyo designed with Anythink library branches and their communities in mind.
“Recontextualized Roots is a group of site-specific, research-based works that are based on where they’re going,” Florez-Arroyo said. “It’s taking apart who we are as people, our community, where we come from (and) our roots, and then putting it all back together.”
Each large-scale piece was inspired by Florez-Arroyo’s own heritage and Commerce City, Bennett and Thornton, where the pieces will be displayed.
“I would love viewers to walk away feeling a sense of home. (I took) a deep dive into these different communities, learning about and visiting them,” he said. “Allowing these places to affect me has been a deep part of the work.”
At Anythink Commerce City, Florez-Arroyo installed a canvas painting in the computer room representing the area’s industrial and natural features, “weaving these pieces together in the same way it’s woven in the community itself.”
At Anythink Bennett and Thornton Community Center Libraries, Florez-Arroyo worked in other mediums to bring his vision to life. At Bennett, guests will be inspired to look up view piñata-inspired butterflies made from carboard and fabrics from around the world, which allude to migration. For Thornton, he cut, shaped and painted wood and cardboard panels, which are incorporated into a hanging mobile featuring dragonflies, a symbol for transformation, adaptability, and self-realization.
Florez-Arroyo said he is grateful for the opportunity to have his work displayed in libraries, and believes it has a positive impact on the community and future generations.
“I feel there is a tremendous value allowing work by professional artists to be in libraries because this is a place for imagination” he said. “(For) artists, our job is to imagine a new world, (and) bring forward these different feelings or understandings that the collective can see and understand.”
Florez-Arroyo is already inspired by the feedback the artwork has received and questions teenagers have brought to staff.
“(I’m) thankful to bring questions to the community in a good way.”
“Recontextualized Roots” installations are currently on display at Anythink Commerce City through Dec. 16, and at Bennett and Thornton Community Center through January.
Watch Florez-Arroyo speak about the series and his inspirations here.