Between Roots is a focused New York presentation bringing together museum commissioned works originally created for Raul De Lara’s recent solo exhibition at The Contemporary Austin, now shown in New York City for the first time alongside a selection of new and recent sculptures drawn directly from the artist’s studio. Presented at Gaa Gallery in Tribeca in partnership with Emergent Art Advisory, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to encounter this significant body of work in an intimate gallery setting.

De Lara’s sculptures transform familiar objects such as ladders, chairs, tools, and wildflowers into meticulously carved wooden forms that balance beauty with obstruction. Ladders bristle with thorns, seating becomes impossible, and organic forms appear guarded or defensive. These gestures translate the experience of living between nations, identities, and expectations into visceral, tactile encounters that invite close looking and reflection.

Wildflowers recur throughout the exhibition as quiet but potent symbols. Referencing species such as Damianita, Firewheel, and Lazy Daisy, plants that flourish naturally on both sides of the U.S. / Mexico border, De Lara draws subtle parallels between botanical resilience and human migration. Together, the works reflect on movement, labor, and belonging, offering a nuanced meditation on adaptation and endurance. As De Lara states, “How come flowers can be native to two countries but not people?”

Seen together in New York, the city where De Lara now lives and works, these sculptures reveal a practice shaped by lived experience, material rigor, and emotional intelligence. Through this presentation of museum commissioned works positioned in dialogue with new works from De Lara’s studio, Between Roots offers a comprehensive view of an artist whose work speaks powerfully to contemporary social realities while remaining deeply personal and human.

Raul De Lara (b. 1991, Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico) is a sculptor who explores the emotive and storytelling qualities of materials. His research preserves, honors, and propels forward traditional uses of wood in Mexican and American culture while combining them with new developments in the global industry of woodworking. Fond of humor, magical realism , and the uncanny, De Lara’s work references the visual language found in nature, furniture design, and cultural artifacts. De Lara immigrated from Mexico to the United States at the age of 12 and has been a DACA recipient since 2012. After eight years of undocumented status, and currently still unable to freely travel outside the United States, his work reflects on multinational belonging, queer identity, and the immigrant experience. He is currently living and working in Queens, NY.