Jovencio de la Paz

Jovencio de la Paz (b. 1986, Republic of Singapore) lives and works in Eugene, Oregon.

The work of Jovencio de la Paz is situated in the intersection of radically different technologies: the loom and the modern computer. They approach this intersection both as a traditionally trained weaver and a digital native. Sharing the same language of binary code, this ancient technology and software are both exploited, disrupted and even undermined in de la Paz’s work. They use the digital TC2 (Thread Controller 2) Jacquard loom to manipulate, hack, confound, and fracture design software to explore and test the boundaries of how cloth is typically conceived. They push design software to the point of rupture or failure, capturing the physicality of these behaviors as the warp and weft of hand- woven textiles. Consequently, the works become irreducibly unique “accidents” or formal aberrations. As such, the material history and conceptual nature of the work reflects and embodies the personal politics and non binary identity of the artist not merely as a form of affirmative representation, but rather as a complex space of potential.

Upcoming solo exhibition includes P.P.O.W., New York, 2025.

Recent solo exhibitions include The Ends of Rainbow, Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, 2023; Some Circles, Bent Pyramids, and Warped Grids, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, 2022; The Ghost and the Maze, Specialist Gallery, Seattle, 2021; and Cumulative Shadow, Holding Contemporary, Portland, 2021.

Recent group exhibitions include A Tenuous Thread, Forms & Concept Gallery, Santa Fe, 2024; Weaving Data, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Portland, 2023; Conflictual Distance: The Immigrant Artist Biennial, EFA Project Space, New York, 2023; A Sieve for Infinity, Slash Gallery, Oakland, 2022; With Eyes Wide Open: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932, Cranbrook Museum of Art, Bloomfield Hills, 2021; The Sign of the Enterer, Ditch Projects, Springfield, 2020; Objects: USA 2020, R & Company, New York, 2020; Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts Biennial, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, 2020; and Prints from Crow’s Shadow, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, 2020.

CV