Peter Hoffecker Mejia
Tmesis, meaning to cut, is a device used in informal language where one word, or phrase is separated into parts, by another word being interjected between them. In much of my work, I am exploring a compressed space and a thinking of how rupture, overlay, and interjection, often remove, reveal, and alter. Here, I am fragment dealer, splicing family photos, translucent vinyl, acrylic sheet, and thread, to create a composite, alluding to a blurred record, and a fractured narrative.
Pete Hoffecker Mejia’s work is engaged in the exploration and mediation of intersectional cultural identity, hierarchies of representation, and the politics of abstraction. His structures investigate the blurred points of contact resulting from estrangement, while also looking at the continuing impacts of colonialism. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, and raised in the United States, Hoffecker Mejía received his BFA from the University of Memphis and an MFA from Indiana University. His work has appeared in print and online magazines including New American Paintings, Create! Magazine and others. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Ox-Bow School of Art, the Studios at MASS MoCA, the Vermont Studio Center, and others. He is currently Assistant Professor at Western Oregon University.