Julio Cesar Morales

Julio Cesar Morales’ best-known works explore the movement of people, narcotics, contraband, and American popular culture across the U.S.-Mexico border. Through his multimedia installations, mixed-media drawings and paintings, and photography, Morales depicts this border world as it is without adopting a distinct moral position; his work aims to capture the people along the border in their attempts to grapple with life in a liminal space where there is no right or wrong, only tactics of survival. For his 2011 exhibition “Contrabando”, Morales made drawings of tunnels and children concealed inside transparent piñatas, and a 15-minute video about the contraband culture along the border. For Narquitectos #1 (2009), part of the installation, he drew blueprints of imaginary narcotic-smuggling tunnels with the precision of an architect.