Five Lights
2023
Mixed media (Steel, resin, lights, and artifacts from migrants deported during their refugee application)

The Pursuit of Happiness: A Venture in Migration
2024
Mixed media (3D printing, laser cut acrylic, wood, steel, lights, video)

My multi-media installations and sculptures comment on identity, immigration, inequality and domestic terrorism in our commercially centered society. To heighten awareness and begin conversation, my artwork is engineered as both artistic presentation and an invitation to engage the viewer into the work itself, creating an interactive experience that merges a passion for the arts with today’s technologies and social/political concerns. My work speaks to the part of American culture that is misconstrued because of political and media rhetoric, the Mexican American Border, immigration, identity and history. It is through art that I encourage the viewers to research their ancestral backgrounds, empathize with our neighbors, and learn about histories that were not taught in schools or adapted to lionize our country. 

Five Lights references a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Chain of Command.” In one scene, a Cardassian military official tortures Captain Picard by convincing him that he is looking at five lights instead of four. Five Lights represents the rhetoric promoted by pundits and media, creating a new “fact” of five lights while obfuscating migrants’ plights and the need to create a more humane discussion on the issue. The objects in Five Lights were collected by a migrant lawyer in Las Cruces in hopes of reuniting them with their owners. After three years, he was ordered to dispose of them. A judge in Las Cruces agreed the items could be incorporated into this artwork, and Five Lights was created.

The Pursuit of Happiness: A Venture in Migration is an interactive board game and video on the trials and tribulations migrants undergo as they come to our country. The table mimics the border wall in El Paso and is a representation of the steady militarization of the border. Two to six players can play in different categories of travelers all with the shared goal of achieving a better life and security in the United States of America. Along with the game, observers will see rotoscoped stories of migrants and their journeys.

About the artist

Angel Cabrales views everything as an artistic resource and utilizes this in all of his creations, from his extensive experience with a variety of mediums and styles, to the intangibles, such as his upbringing in the El Paso, Texas Borderlands. His work grows and expands with the requirements presented from each new idea. His father, a retired engineer at White Sands Missile Range, instilled into Angel a great interest in science and engineering, while his mother, a politically active stay at home mother, taught him the importance of community and social work through her volunteer work. Angel's work is an amalgamation of his upbringing resulting in social/political commentary with an engineering flair. Each artwork’s concept ultimately dictates the medium needed for its creation, so artistic evolution is intrinsic in his philosophy. 

Cabrales received his BFA from Arizona State University and MFA from The University of North Texas. He is a tenured Associate Professor in Sculpture at the University of Texas at El Paso where he teaches all levels of sculpture. He is head of the EASSI (Engineering + Art +  Science = Social Impact) team that works on community engaged projects involving the arts and sciences in the Borderlands of El Paso. 

Cabrales’ artwork has been in numerous national and international exhibitions including, The United States and Mexico: A Powerful Past, A Shared Future exhibition at the US Embassy residence of Ambassador Ken Salazar in Mexico City, MX, Cervantino 2023 in Guanajuato, MX representing the US, Casa Ben Franklin in Guanajuato, MX, the International TransBorder Biennial,  Texas Biennial, Mexic-Arte Museum, National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Mesa, AZ, Latino Cultural Center of Dallas, El Paso Museum of  Art, Punto de Contacto in Syracuse, NY, among others.