JOSHUA NAZARIO LUGO: Allà Afuera (Out There)

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is pleased to present Joshua Nazario Lugo: Allá Afuera (Out There), the artist’s first solo exhibition outside of Puerto Rico. Presenting new paintings and sculptures developed during an artist residency in Santa Monica, CA, the exhibition will run from March 14 to April 11, 2026. An artist reception will be held on Saturday, March 14, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Joshua Nazario Lugo is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist who explores identity, personal memory, and popular culture in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. His work, spanning painting, sculpture, and installation is characterized by a raw creativity and simplicity, with energetic brushwork, a rich material vocabulary, and a vibrant palette that shifts between primary colors and the lush hues found in Puerto Rico’s dense tropical vegetation.

“Allá afuera” (“out there”) references a common phrase used among Puerto Ricans to refer to the U.S. in relation to those who have left the island. The exhibition draws from the longest period Nazario has spent away from Puerto Rico, an experience that has allowed him to reflect on the realities faced by those who leave home in search of a different life. The exhibition celebrates Puerto Rican culture, both inside and outside the island.

Nazario Lugo blends personal history with broader narratives, frequently incorporating his passion for sports and car culture to portray the everyday realities of life on the island. By juxtaposing locally sourced materials such as concrete, wood, metal, and found objects with symbols of luxury—riffing off brands and sports cars—he provokes metaphors that contrasts the thrill of life's pleasures with societal projections of success and competition.

Scenes of daily life shift between familiarity and distance, longing and determination, challenge and celebration. Figures, communal spaces, natural landscapes, folk traditions, and social constructs such as hometown sports teams evoke an emotional terrain of identity, home, and kinship. Nazario Lugo cleverly employs familiar, logo-inspired visual elements to blur the lines between home life, capitalism, and cultural memory.

The exhibition navigates vibrant memories of home and the swift impacts of recent events like Bad Bunny at Super Bowl LX and Hurricane Maria, building a world that pays homage to everyday resilience while examining and representing lived experiences within and beyond Puerto Rico. Allá Afuera approaches migration not as a singular passage but as an ongoing, generational condition that continues to shape Puerto Rican and Latinx diasporas across the world.