Favela with his family at the Houston show "Piñataesthic" in 2020.

In the new High Desert Museum exhibition “Vistas Del Cielo,” artist Justin Favela uses colorful piñata panes of paper-stained glass in the artist’s work. The bright wavy colors of reds, yellows and oranges make the landscape mural come to life with movement.

Honoring his heritage, Favela also created a colorful artistic representation of churches he visited with his grandfather, who was a vaquero, or Indigenous Mexican cowboy.

“I am interested in exploring the notions of authenticity, place, and identity, using familiar materials to make large-scale installations, sculptures, and paintings,” Favela said.

The High Desert Museum asked the multidisciplinary artist to create the exhibition, whose name translates to “View from the Skies.” It pays an artistic homage to his family heritage and the Latinx culture of vaqueros, braceros and traqueros (ranchers and laborers). Using colorful piñata tissue paper, Favela created a landscape mural of various High Desert terrain.

Favela is a Guatemalan-Mexican-American artist based out of Las Vegas. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Museum Senior Curator of Exhibitions and Collections Dustin Cockerham helped bring in Favela.

“One of my primary roles at the museum focuses on the art and artists presenting at the museum. I pitched it to the larger team here at the museum and showed everyone examples of his work and how it fits the mission of what we strive to do here at the museum,” Cockerham said.

A museum employee of 11 years, he is excited to bring in new cultural exhibits of art that fit within the mission of the facility. According to Cockerham, the museum exhibits usually focus a lot on cultural and land-based themes. Favela’s artwork coincides with the theme of bringing both the colorful land and Latinx cultural aspects to the museum.

Although the museum has done bilingual themes before, this will be its first completely Spanish-forward exhibit, according to Cockerham.

“Exhibits like these are important for the community to break cultural barriers in communities that are underrepresented,” Cockerham said.

Favela is well-known for creating colorful piñata material Sculptures, landscapes, and large-scale installations. Some of his art has been displayed in venues such as Meow Wolf: Omega Mart in Las Vegas, Denver Art Museum and many more. In 2018, he earned the Alan Turing LGTBIQ Award for the International artist category and the Joan Mitchell Fellowship in 2021. He has also hosted the podcasts Latinos Who Lunch and The Art People Podcast.

Ironically, Favela never grew up liking piñatas, he often felt they became patronizing to the culture. However, he later discovered it to be a vessel for meaningful art.

“As a person of color, in art school, I was always expected to make art related to my culture, though I noticed the white friends and classmates weren’t pressured the same. So, almost like a protest, I chose to create a stereotypic piñata-style donkey sculpture. However, people became enthusiastically drawn to the sculpture and then that’s when I realized there was something more here; I have a new medium of art and I discovered the history and the dichotomy of beauty and destruction within it,” Favela said.

Now, Favela has artistically embraced the piñata medium and is incorporating a new technique into “Vista del Cielo.”

“Most of the mural is a collage of Smith Rock and the high desert. I’ve been working on a new technique of flattening tissue paper; it almost looks like stained glass and are elements going into this exhibit,” Favela said. Besides the important historical and cultural aspects of his work, Favela also wants those viewing his art to feel capable of achieving the same art.

“Everyone knows this type of colorful tissue paper and I enjoy pushing the boundaries of what it can do. I just want people to feel my work is accessible and attainable through inspiration,” Favela said.

Maybe it’s the duality of beauty and destruction Favela mentioned that will make his art all the more accessible and inspirational. Also, his exhibit may inspire us all to see piñatas more as a medium of art.