ZⓈONAMACO Arte Contemporáneo 2026: Raul De Lara and Manoela Medeiros
Palo Gallery is delighted to announce its participation in ZⓈONAMACO Arte Contemporáneo 2026 with a duo presentation in their curated Sur sector featuring sculptures by Raul De Lara and Manoela Medeiros. Working in contrasting materials and coming from distinct cultural contexts, the artists are brought together by shared interests in storytelling, the relationship between space and time, and the belief that materials can hold memory.
De Lara’s meticulously carved wood sculptures carry narratives, shaped not only by their imagery but by histories of labor, movement, and displacement. Recurring motifs of tools, cacti, and masks offer windows into De Lara’s identity and cultural legacy. De Lara melds traditional wood working practices of Mexico and the US to produce sculptures that dance between humour, surreality and the uncanny.
Manoela Medeiros works across painting, sculpture, and installation, often treating architecture as both subject and material. In her sculptural practice Medeiros is inspired by the architectural history of Modernism, Brazilian architecture and cross cultural influences. In her original sculpture show Medeiros responded to the architecture of Le Corbuiser’s Unitè, whereas the works in this presentation are responses to the histories of Brazilian Modernist architecture. These sculptures, like vignettes, become portraits of a particular society and how they live.
Together, De Lara and Medeiros approach their practices as vessels of collective and personal memories. Medeiros reveals these memories and histories, through a removal of materials, whereas De Lara builds forms that accumulate history and meaning. Both artists walk the line between solely additive and subtractive practices.
Palo Gallery (New York) is delighted to announce its participation in ZⓈONAMACO Arte Contemporeáno 2026 with a duo presentation in their curated Sur sector featuring sculptures by Raul De Lara and Manoela Medeiros. Working in contrasting materials and coming from distinct cultural contexts, the artists are brought together by shared interests in storytelling, the relationship between space and time, and the belief that materials can hold memory.
De Lara’s meticulously carved wood sculptures carry narratives, shaped not only by their imagery but by histories of labor, movement, and displacement. Recurring motifs of tools, cacti, and masks offer windows into De Lara’s identity and cultural legacy. De Lara melds traditional wood working practices of Mexico and the US to produce sculptures that dance between humour, surreality and the uncanny. A well used shovel's handle is carved in such a way that it looks exhausted and unusable while a wall mounted round cactus serves as a self portrait of the artist. Each sculpture perplexes both in its exceptional technical execution and its tapestry of complex references and narratives.
Manoela Medeiros works across painting, sculpture, and installation, often treating architecture as both subject and material. In her sculptural practice Medeiros is inspired by the architectural history of Modernism, Brazilian architecture and cross cultural influences. In her original sculpture show Medeiros responded to the architecture of Le Corbuiser’s Unitè, whereas the works in this presentation are responses to the histories of Brazilian Modernist architecture. Each sculpture is a deconstruction of architectural elements some found and others cast and produced in the artist's studio. These sculptures, like vignettes, become portraits of a particular society and how they live. Moreover the pieces hold an incredible energetic charge; both perfectly balanced and stable but appear as if they could collapse at any moment.
Together, De Lara and Medeiros approach their practices as vessels of collective and personal memories. Medeiros reveals these memories and histories, through a removal of materials, whereas De Lara builds forms that accumulate history and meaning. Both artists walk the line between solely additive and subtractive practices.
Presented within the context of ZⓈONAMACO, their work emphasizes that space is never neutral and speaks to the urgency of remembering; vital during this time marked by heightened border tensions and continued marginalization of migrant communities.
