Vicente Telles
Born:
USA
Lives in:
Albuquerque, USA
Location
- Campbelltown Arts Centre
Vicente Telles is a Santero and Cultural Iconographer whose work navigates the tension between tradition and reinvention. Rooted in the centuries-old practices of his native New Mexico, Telles began painting retablos—saints rendered on hand-carved wood—using pigments ground from local clays and minerals, layered on homemade gesso and sealed with piñon sap varnish. For Telles, the act of making is an act of devotion: to his ancestors, to the land, and to the survival of cultural memory. Pushing beyond traditional forms, Telles reimagines Catholic and cultural iconography, expanding the Santero practice into contemporary contexts. Working with textiles, handmade papers, and salvaged or repurposed materials, his images inhabit the space between the sacred and the everyday, insisting that heritage is not static but alive and evolving. Telles’ Santos and contemporary works transcend religion, becoming symbols for resilience, continuity, and the changing face of heritage. His art embodies both devotion and disruption, preserving centuries of practice alive while reinterpreting its themes and motifs for modern life.
Vicente Telles, Primera Voz/ First Voice, 2026. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Campbelltown Arts Centre. Courtesy of the artist © Vicente Telles. Installation view, 25th Biennale of Sydney, Rememory, 2026, Campbelltown Arts Centre. Photograph: Silversalt Photography.
Vicente Telles, Primera Voz/ First Voice, 2026. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Campbelltown Arts Centre. Courtesy of the artist © Vicente Telles. Installation view, 25th Biennale of Sydney, Rememory, 2026, Campbelltown Arts Centre. Photograph: Silversalt Photography.
Vicente Telles
Born 1983, USA
Lives and works in Albuquerque, USA
Primera Voz / First Voice 2026
watercolour pigments, foraged micaceous clay, oil pastel, soft pastel, masonite panel, T-shirt, bean sack, split logs
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Campbelltown Arts Centre
Courtesy of the artist
Primera Voz / First Voice reflects on language as both inheritance and loss. Developed during Vincente Telles’s residency at Campbelltown Arts Centre, the work is rooted in the artist’s upbringing in Albuquerque’s South Valley, a predominantly Latino community shaped by forced assimilation. The painting emerges from the erasure that occurs when a first language is taken away through coercion and punishment. English becomes a necessity, while Spanish lingers as a shadow, producing a sense of displacement that unfolds across generations.
The work speaks to a double estrangement: from an ancestral language, and from the dominant culture that enforced its erasure. This personal history resonates with broader global patterns of colonisation, settler violence, and the suppression of Indigenous and minoritised cultures.
Materially, the painting is grounded in place. While in residence, Telles incorporated micaceous clay and mineral pigments foraged in New Mexico, embedding the land itself into the surface. For Telles, these materials carry memory, voice, and identity, situating the work within broader conversations about place, Country, and the histories embedded in the land
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