About the Exhibition.

TMR is pleased to present Eduardo Sarabia: Drifting on a Dream—the Los Angeles-born, Guadalajara-based artist’s first solo exhibition in his home city in nearly a decade. Made possible through the support of the Mike Kelley Foundation, and coinciding with the Getty Foundation’s PST: LA/LA initiative, the show brings together a selection of Sarabia’s most iconic past projects with a host of new works. 

Organized loosely in three sections that represent recurring characters in the artist’s oeuvre—The Migrant, The Mystic, and The Greater Fool—the exhibition explores the many ways people dream in the in-between; between past and future; between necessity and morality; and between the real and the other-worldly. These interstitial stories allow for a re-engagement with Sarabia’s on-going exploration of narco-culture, immigrant worldviews, and the convoluted pursuit of the American Dream. Drifting on a Dream functions as both an immersive environment and a backdrop for a series of public and private events and happenings, staged as part of the artist’s ongoing production of a new video work. Some of these include a series of “tequila conversations,” thematic film screenings, the reactivation of an expedition company charged with finding Pancho Villa’s lost gold, and the unveiling of a new artist-produced mezcal. Each of these moments bridges an intimate story to broader lived circumstances. That is, they create tangible connections between the profit-driven schemes of nations, corporations, and cartels, and the difficult choices people must make in uncertain times.

Sarabia's practice, like that of a faithful chronicler's, confronts us with truthful, albeit difficult, realities. In his work, common stories of the hopeful migrant, the student activist, the successful entrepreneur, the narco, and righteous politician are problematized and presented from multiple perspectives. What emerges is a set of contradictions that speak to the best and worst of our habits—reminding us that often, the world we refute, is one we are complicit in making.