The Price of Admission

Daphne Art Foundation (Daphne) presents “The Price of Admission,” a solo exhibition of new work by Laredo artist Jorge Javier López. The exhibition opens with an Artist Reception on Friday, July 11, 2025 from 8-11 p.m. at Casa Daphne, located at 1420 Washington Street in Laredo, Texas. The event is free and open to the public and will include art, food, and refreshments!

In this exhibit, Daphne presents 21 of López’s new mixed media works, small and large in scale, presented on canvas, paper, and panel created with acrylic paint, ink, and graphite. Each piece reflects López’s distinct and robust use of line, often scratchy and untidy. In these art works, López also utilizes bolder colors, a shift from his previous monochromatic artwork, that frame his subjects or serve as platforms to aggrandize them. 

The characters in López’s art works, or “beasts,” as he refers to them, possess deformities. Some are missing limbs, eyes, or other parts of their bodies; others exude layers of limbs and teeth, seamless as though they were surgically attached; others’ mouths are pierced with nail-like rings or sewn shut altogether.  

Despite of what appears to be twisted content, López’s artwork indicates comradeship, compassion, and love. Upon approaching the artwork, the viewer can expect to be confronted with an honest gaze, one that shows awareness of existence but fails to accept that something is really wrong–to the viewer, who may not be able to accept the truth. 

“The Price of Admission explores the true price of participating in our communal reality. These personal costs take a myriad of forms—figures try to hide in crowds, others contort themselves into a perceived normalcy, and even the beasts pretend not to notice their glaring deformities—yet, no matter how the subjects attempt to rein in the truths of themselves, there is no hiding them,” López said. “When so much of our society seems fractured and bewildering, we can find commonality in our humanity,” López continued.

Jorge Javier López is a self-taught artist who was born and raised in Laredo, Texas. Since 1999, López has exhibited his artwork at multiple galleries across Texas including, Gallery 201, Musa Contemporary Art Space, K Space Contemporary, Mexic-Arte Museum, Sound Alternative Art Space, and El Paso Museum of Art. López has also participated in other exhibitions across the United States and in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. His last exhibition, “Obsolescence,” took place at the Laredo Center for the Arts in 2021. 

Founded in 2019, Daphne Art Foundation is a 501c(3) nonprofit arts organization that focuses on improving the quality of life through transformative cultural experiences with a mission is to advance the visual, performing, and media arts in the Laredo border region by: providing residencies to artists and creatives, exhibiting and promoting artists, and cultivating arts appreciation and participation. Daphne Art Foundation’s vision is a vibrant Laredo where the arts are central to our cultural and socioeconomic vitality.

“The Price of Admission” will be on view at Casa Daphne from July 11-August 22, 2025. Admission to the gallery is free. Gallery hours are by appointment. To schedule a viewing call (956) 307-8984. Daphne’s exhibition programming would not be possible without the support of Cigarroa Clinic and L&F Distributors.

Contact Maritza Bautista, Executive Director of Daphne Art Foundation, for more information at (956) 307-8984.