Home-less-bound: Robert Mateo Diago With Willie Baronet and Cristella Medrano

The MAC is pleased to present home•less•bound, an exhibition by robert mateo diago with Willie Baronet and Cristella Medrano. Using a series of installations, sculpture and photography, r mateo diago, Baronet and Medrano create a comfortable environment to investigate our ingrained or inherit perceptions toward the homeless. These artists dig beyond surface ideas to initiate larger conversations about community, indifference and the important issue of homelessness.

Puerto Rican born artist robert mateo diago currently lives and works in Dallas, Texas. Primarily a self-taught artist, r maeto diago has a background in advertising, graphic design, curating and directing. His extensive training in design has informed and influenced much of his work. In addition to group shows, he has participated in solo exhibitions locally and nationally at Steve Paul Production Gallery in Deep Ellum, Ro2 Art Downtown and Kolok Gallery in North Adams, MA. r mateo diago is widely known for his use of assemblage, photography and typography.

Willie Baronet is an artist, professor and life/business coach living in Dallas, TX. In 2011, he earned an MFA in Arts & Technology from the University of Texas at Dallas, where he first exhibited artwork related to the issue of homelessness. Baronet has been buying and collecting cardboard signs form the homeless since 1993. His work has been featured in a number of group exhibitions including the 15th Annual “No Dead Artists” at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, LA and “INVASIONEN/INVASIONS” at the Galerie Carolyn Heinz in Hamburg, Germany. He is currently a member of the art collectives “In Cooperation With Muscle Nation” and “CircleWerk.” Baronet is currently teaching design courses as an adjunct faculty member at Texas Christian University.

Cristella Medrano is a photographer and native-born Texan. In 2010, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Arts and Performance from the University of Texas at Dallas. Cristella’s work with homeless environments is guided by a journalistic approach to photography. Her experience volunteering for Habitat for Humanity influenced her goal to capture spaces the homeless create in the absence of public alternatives. Medrano does not consider her photography to be ‘artistic.’ She simply shoots and edits in a way best described as “a small cut above natural” and keeps technical adjustments to a minimum.

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