"Milagro 1"

"Milagro 1"
Adri De La Cruz
Pine, aerosol paint, found bone
11.5 X 7”
$400

Adri De La Cruz is an artist, curator and organizer born and raised in Albuquerque whose
curatorial work is centered in inclusivity and community development. Adri is a multimedia artist
whose work has been featured at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and 516 arts. They
curated visual arts at La Chancla gallery and have co-curated and juried shows for Graft gallery,
and UNM’s sculpture department. Adri has been featured in Southwestness Arts,The
Albuquerque Journal, El Palaico magazine, KUNM and Hyperallergic. Adri was also a
co-recipient of a Creative Bravos award for exceptional community impact and creative work in
Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2023.They received their BA in Psychology and American Studies
from the University of New Mexico (2017).

Adri De La Cruz works in a range of media but they are most known for practicing scrimshaw or
carving into bone, an artform they began working with in 2015. Since then, bones have featured
prominently in De La Cruz’s work and they represent a complex artistic practice that includes
collecting bones from animals that have already died (with permission) cleaning the bones with
the help of hide eating beetles and dawn dish soap, and engraving onto the surface of the bone
with wood carving tools or an X-Acto knife.

For De La Cruz, working with bone in this way began as a method for processing grief and it
involves a deep level of respect for the living creatures the bone once belonged to.The Milagro
series references a longstanding tradition of using metal representations of body parts called
milagros (Spanish for miracle) to pray for healing throughout Mexico, Latin America and the
Southwest. In this case, however De La Cruz’s art work is a devotional request for a significant
Milagro, the end of globe conflict and genocide.