Rafa Esparza and Maria Maea

Curated by Sacha Craddock, AV brings together for the first time at Plataforma the collaborative work of American artist Rafa Esparza and tactile artist and maker Maria Maea.

Both artists develop practices deeply rooted in manual labor, assemblage, and the construction of inhabitable contexts where sculpture, installation, and collective experience intertwine. Rafa Esparza, internationally recognized for incorporating traditional building materials and construction methods into dialogues around identity, migration, and urban space, has exhibited at institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer Museum, and Museo Jumex. Maria Maea, meanwhile, works through processes of weaving, sound, and material assemblage to create forms connected to the body, memory, and communal experience.

The exhibition takes as its point of departure the areas surrounding the Los Angeles River channel—ambiguous territories where rest, transit, precarity, and refuge converge. Conceived specifically for Plataforma, the installation proposes a shared experience that reflects on belonging, vulnerability, and the collective ways in which contemporary space is occupied.

— Plataforma