The Laredo Center for the Arts invites members of the media, artists, supporters, and friends of the Center to an exclusive preview reception for YONKE EncontraDOS, a two-person exhibition featuring South Texas artists Gil Rocha and Ruben Luna. The exhibit is curated by Rigoberto Luna in collaboration with San Antonio’s Presa House Gallery.
The June 4 special preview offers guests an opportunity to experience the exhibition before its public opening, engage in conversation about the artists’ work, and explore the themes that connect their practices. The exhibition will be officially inaugurated during CaminARTE on Friday, June 5. The Laredo Center for the Arts is at 500 San Agustin Avenue. The exhibit remains up through August 7.
YONKE EncontraDOSexamines the creative ingenuity, humor, and resourcefulness that emerge from life along the U.S.–Mexico border. Through assemblage, found objects, mixed media, and sculptural interventions, Rocha and Luna transform discarded materials into works that reflect cultural memory, identity, and everyday survival.
Their shared approach is deeply informed by the concept of rasquachismo, a term theorized by Chicano scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto to describe an aesthetic and worldview rooted in making the most of what is available. Rasquachismo embraces improvisation, resilience, and creative adaptation, elevating ordinary and overlooked materials into expressions of cultural pride and artistic innovation.
In this exhibition, rasquachismo extends beyond aesthetics and becomes a methodology that foregrounds problem-solving, invention, and the ability to create meaning from circumstance.
The artists draw upon the visual language of junkyards, neighborhoods, border crossings, family histories, and vernacular culture to reveal how communities transform scarcity into possibility.
About the Artists
Gil Rocha is a Laredo-born multidisciplinary artist, curator, and former educator whose work spans painting, collage, sculpture, assemblage, installation, and writing. Rooted in the lived experience of the Mexican-American border, his practice explores themes of identity, migration, memory, and place. Alongside his artistic career, Rocha has spent more than two decades serving the community as an educator, muralist, public artist, curator, and cultural advocate.
Ruben Luna, also known as Gacho Style, is a self-taught artist from San Antonio’s South Side. His work explores the principles of rasquachismo through inventive mixed-media constructions made from found, recycled, and commonplace materials. Luna’s practice pays homage to working-class Mexican-American communities through works that celebrate ingenuity, nostalgia, and the ability to “make do” with available resources.
About the Curator
Rigoberto Luna is a curator, cultural organizer, and co-founder of Presa House Gallery. Through his curatorial practice, Luna has championed emerging and mid-career artists across Texas and the Southwest, with a particular focus on Latinx and underrepresented voices. His exhibitions frequently investigate themes of place, identity, border culture, and materiality.
About Presa House Gallery
Founded in 2016, Presa House Gallery is a DIY, artist-run gallery located in San Antonio. Dedicated to supporting emerging and mid-career artists, the gallery provides a platform for experimentation, innovation, and cultural dialogue. Presa House is widely recognized for its commitment to showcasing artists from Texas and the U.S.–Mexico border region, fostering conversations around contemporary art, community, and cultural identity. In 2026, Luna was selected as Guest Curator for the prestigious International Artist-in-Residence Program at Artpace San Antonio, further solidifying his role as an influential voice in contemporary art across Texas and the border region.
This special preview celebrates the artists whose work continues to illuminate the creativity, resilience, and cultural richness of our border communities
