Justin Favela
"Estardas", 2010
Cardboard, paint, glue
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art
Gift of the artist
2015.02.001

“I hope that when people see my work, they see themselves. I think it’s really funny, a lot of people don’t know I’m the artist sometimes and they’ll make a comment about my work when I’m in an installation, and they’ll say, like, wow this person had a lot of time on their hands. Or they’ll say stuff like this is just paper, I could do this, or my kids could do this. And I think that’s awesome! I’m like, yeah, you could do it. Thankfully I have the privilege of having enough time on my hands to do this, and so do you if you really wanted to. But I like this idea of people finding my work accessible, and that has a lot to do with the materials I use. It’s just cardboard and paper. Anybody has access to that, you know?”
Kaila Schedeen, ”Interview: Justin Favela and ¿Quihúbole?” (Fusebox Festival website, 2019)

“It’s a little nod to all the people who worked there. That’s the Stardust they knew – Estardas."

Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, “Piñata Pride,” American Craft Magazine, June/July 2018
2015.02.001

A native Las Vegan, Justin Favela creates sculptures, installations, and performance works that address ideas about culture, nostalgia, and self-identification. Favela’s work has been exhibited at Denver Art Museum, CO; New Mexico Museum of Art, NM; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AR; the MAC Belfast, U.K.; and the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Along with his co host, Emmanuel Ortega, he is the founder of the popular podcast, Latinos Who Lunch.

Favela’s background as a native Las Vegas artist of working class Mexican and Guatemalan heritage is asserted in this piece, which transforms the landmark sign of the city’s historic—now imploded—Stardust casino into an expression of vernacular pronunciation and thrifty materials. (DKS)