Colombian artist Carlos Castro Arias’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles explores perspectival histories of the conquest of the Americas through the use of opposing craft traditions: bronze casting—a European technique long associated with monuments to colonial power—set against weaving with natural fibers, beads, and ancestral materials that carry the knowledge of Indigenous peoples and belief systems. By collapsing these opposing traditions into a single object, Castro Arias refutes both the colonial monument and its simple inversion. His work holds the tension between these histories rather than favoring one over another, thus opening space for a third position: a shared, ongoing act of making sense of what happened and how that legacy still touches contemporary culture. 

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Vandalismo Artesanal is organized by Frida Cano, Senior Curator.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by the  The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Alan Zafran, First Citizens Bank, Logic Technology Consulting Group,  and The Julius Bernard Kester Trust. 

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The [Untold] Story of Craft  

In June 2025, Craft Contemporary began a series of exhibitions interpreting the varied interactions between craft and the natural elements: air, water, earth, and fire. The exhibitions highlight sustainability, accessibility, and connect visitors to the universal rhythms of the Earth. Significantly, these exhibitions also tell a new story of Craft in a contemporary world as we work together to heal global wounds through creativity and making.

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Hero Image: Carlos Castro Arias, Tio, 2021, resin, beads, adhesive, paint. Image courtesy of Craft Contemporary. Photo: Audrey Libatique, ArtTable Fellow 2026