Through collages built from paper and fiber, Clotilde Jim e9nez assembles a personal topography of lineage and place. The Mexico City-based artist was born in Honolulu to a Puerto Rican mother and African-American father, grew up in Philadelphia, and attended university in Cleveland and London. His works fold together references from the cultural and political contexts of these locales, using magazine clippings, Mexican craft paper, fabrics, and other pliable materials to construct dense portraits of family alongside archetypal depictions of Blackness and masculinity.
Works threaded with memory and material
Fragments of burlap and thin woven strips course through China de Mayag fcez (2026), an autobiographical piece portraying a young Jim e9nez with his family member Juan. Rendered as a j edbaro, Juan evokes the subsistence farming traditions of Puerto Rico. The pair pick oranges while monarchs flutter among the fruits, the collage materials amplifying the scenes tactile immediacy. A woven hat reappears in The Nightcall (2025), worn by a woman bathed in the blue light of darkness, flanked by black birds with shiny plumage and blooming cacti as a bouquet hangs from her hand.
Fresh blooms also anchor the Flower Portal seriescircular works that draw on Dutch still life paintings. Fish, faces, and beams of light punctuate the lush bouquets, referencing both the fleeting nature of life and humble joys. Among the works shown are Flower Portal 1 (2026), Flower Portal 2 (2026), Invitation to the Altar (2026), Los Varones (2026), and The Nightcall (2025).
Silence, revelation, and family histories
For this body of work, Jim e9nez turns to silences and whats left unsaid within a family, especially the secrets children arent privy to. He has described the pieces as visualizing a revelation that offered insight into a history of abuse. As he explains: My grandmother, when I was an adult, randomly was like I need to tell you something, and she told me that my grandfather was not my real grandfather. It is actually his brother, the one who kind of looked out for you and raised you. Everything made sense. Im not making excuses for abuse, but Im seeing it a little bit more objectively now, why certain things were said, why certain things were done, why certain things were ignored. So the show is really about silence and how that forms us from a young age.
The collages are included in c9ramos silencios which translates to we were silent on view through October 31 at Marianne Ibrahims Chicago gallery.
