The Pueblo of Zuni rests along the Western border of New Mexico, about 150 miles from Albuquerque. Well-known for mastering artisanal techniques such as inlaid silverwork, stone carving, beadwork, and basketry, the Zuni people—the A:Shiwi—have developed these intricate artforms for thousands of years.

Artist Silvester Hustito, a.k.a. Sobé, was born and raised amid these flourishing handwork traditions, and much of the artist’s youth in Zuni was spent watching his mother make intricate needlepoint jewelry pieces. Sobé reflects on how pivotal this exposure was at such a young age in his first New York solo exhibition, Why Am I Alive Now? at Participant Inc. While some of the artist’s more sculptural works embody A:Shiwi techniques similar to beading, Sobé also incorporates the presence of printed media by creating a “skin” for acrylic portraiture.

As an avid magazine lover, the artist says, “Printed media was seen as taboo on the Zuni reservation. We don’t allow photography or sketching around the sacred ceremonies, and back in the day, we were forbidden to create representations of humans, as it might have been seen as witchcraft. I use the printed matter as documentation of our lives today, like the petroglyphs around the world.” Dipped in glue and plastered onto canvas, ephemera like magazine pages, inserts, and auction catalogs act as a living surface for abstract faces.

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