In his first institutional solo exhibition, Fort Worth-based artist Francisco Josué Alvarado Araujo expands his carefully engineered combinations of repurposed objects with three new works. While other examples of his found object sculptures appear to be precariously or even impossibly balanced, the works on view at the Nasher incorporate techniques like weaving, binding, and weighted compression to give materials a noticeable sense of strength.
Central to the exhibition is a panel of woven metal—ends from slabs of drywall— supported by a motley group of tripods. Uniting these two components, both of which were originally intended to provide stability, Alvarado Araujo produces an organic and open combination of barrier and support.
In both spirit and materials, Alvarado Araujo’s work shares much in common with concurrent Nasher exhibition artist and fellow Texan, Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008). Rauschenberg’s three-dimensional practice voraciously incorporated images and objects from everyday life inspired by the artist’s desire to “act in the gap” between art and life. Like Rauschenberg, Alvarado Araujo prefers to work with objects marked by the histories of their use, bringing the action and energy of lived experience into the materials of his sculptures.
While Rauschenberg worked improvisationally, Alvarado Araujo goes through a lengthy process of sketching, testing, and staging sculptures in his backyard studio before attempting to recreate or reimagine them in a specific gallery space. To some degree, the form of his realized works depends on the conditions of the space where they are installed. A configuration that was stable on the lawn of his backyard may not find balance on the gallery floor; materials like plastic and wood expand or contract depending on environmental heat and humidity and might require rearranging. The inherent instability of these sculptures questions the idea of the permanence of an artwork as much as its ability to be transported to be presented in different contexts. Alvarado Araujo’s sculptures draw the viewer’s attention to their own presence in the gallery, indirectly pointing to the ways people adapt themselves in response to different environments.
About the artist
Francisco Josué Alvarado Araujo lives and works in Dallas/Fort Worth. He received a BFA from the University of North Texas in Denton and an MFA from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. His solo exhibitions include a.u.to.de.por.ta.ci.on at Jessamine, Dallas and a.chi.co.pa.la.do at Giant Runt, Forth Worth (both 2024). Alvarado Araujo has participated in numerous group exhibitions around the Metroplex, recently Chateau IV at the historic Aldredge House (2025), London Fix at East Dock (2025), and TAILGATE at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2024). Alvarado Araujo is an artist member of the Easyside Co-op located in Fort Worth, Texas.