Deb Leal, We Had to Wait Until Dinnertime, 2022 - Courtesy of the artist and OSMOS.
TITLE_NAME :
Abre Camino
12/02/2026 - 21/03/2026
OSMOS
50 E 1st Street
NY 10003 New York
https://www.osmos.online/
OSMOS is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in New York by Mexican-American photographer Deb Leal with works created from 2020 to 2023. Leal's practice examines the cultural symbols and visual languages that shape life in the United States, with a focus on Chicano expression—how familiar icons such as cars, religious motifs, and domestic objects carry meaning across generations. As Leal recalls, "my parents took turns sleeping in the passenger seat in their annual 30+ hour drive home to Corpus Christi, TX. I watched them flip through maps and feed each other French fries as the Midwest landscape lent itself to the grandeur of an American road trip. This ritual—marked by endurance and cultural devotion—formed my foundation for visual storytelling." Drawing on familial narratives and syncretic faith traditions such as Curanderismo to honor spiritual and vernacular imagery and reflect on representation, devotion, and transformation, the works in Abre Camino explore the passage of cultural memory through the use of color, texture, and iconography. Saturated hues and double exposures emulate the texture of memory and déjà vu—fragmented yet resilient, shifting between the everyday and the sacred—while considering endurance: how cultural rituals and symbols persist in the face of social, ecological, and technological change. As the work evolves, it asks what forms of meaning emerge as the material world transforms—when the icons that once defined identity are reinterpreted through new technologies—positioning Chicano expression as a living visual and spiritual language through which Mexican-American communities articulate regional identities within the broader U.S. cultural landscape. Through this lens, the photographs function as both an archive and offerings for sustaining collective memory and cultural continuity amid acceleration, obsolescence, and surveillance.
12/02/2026 - 21/03/2026
OSMOS
50 E 1st Street
NY 10003 New York
https://www.osmos.online/
OSMOS is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in New York by Mexican-American photographer Deb Leal with works created from 2020 to 2023. Leal's practice examines the cultural symbols and visual languages that shape life in the United States, with a focus on Chicano expression—how familiar icons such as cars, religious motifs, and domestic objects carry meaning across generations. As Leal recalls, "my parents took turns sleeping in the passenger seat in their annual 30+ hour drive home to Corpus Christi, TX. I watched them flip through maps and feed each other French fries as the Midwest landscape lent itself to the grandeur of an American road trip. This ritual—marked by endurance and cultural devotion—formed my foundation for visual storytelling." Drawing on familial narratives and syncretic faith traditions such as Curanderismo to honor spiritual and vernacular imagery and reflect on representation, devotion, and transformation, the works in Abre Camino explore the passage of cultural memory through the use of color, texture, and iconography. Saturated hues and double exposures emulate the texture of memory and déjà vu—fragmented yet resilient, shifting between the everyday and the sacred—while considering endurance: how cultural rituals and symbols persist in the face of social, ecological, and technological change. As the work evolves, it asks what forms of meaning emerge as the material world transforms—when the icons that once defined identity are reinterpreted through new technologies—positioning Chicano expression as a living visual and spiritual language through which Mexican-American communities articulate regional identities within the broader U.S. cultural landscape. Through this lens, the photographs function as both an archive and offerings for sustaining collective memory and cultural continuity amid acceleration, obsolescence, and surveillance.