La Frontera (2016) is a piece included in John Sierra: A Retrospective. Housed in Sierra: The Painter are a series of muslin works spanning three decades of experimentation and reinvention. John Sierra uses muted, earthy, and ethereal colors to evoke a feeling of solemnity and what has been described as a “modern poetic sensibility.”
John Sierra’s La Frontera is a mixed media work on muslin that explores the experience of crossing the border through abstract forms. The figure at the center—a semi-abstract human form—appears to emerge from a landscape or ocean filled with jagged shapes that suggest waves, mountains, or shark fins. These sharp shapes symbolize the many dangers and obstacles migrants face in their journey. The composition is both fluid and amorphous, but grounded by Sierra’s use of earthy, muted blues and greens that evoke nature in a general sense—not tied to one specific terrain. Light appears to radiate softly from all directions, giving the work a glowing atmosphere. Sierra’s preparation of the muslin, a 10-step process involving starching, sun-drying, and pouncing, gives the surface an aged, weathered look reminiscent of ancient cave paintings, such as those at Lascaux. This technique connects contemporary migration to humanity’s long history of movement and survival. Rather than portraying the border as a fixed line, La Frontera presents it as an ethereal space—a threshold marked by danger. Through his poetic, textured approach, Sierra invites viewers to see migration not just as a political issue, but as a deeply human and timeless experience.
La frontera is part of F. John Sierra Retrospective at Arte Américas.
Written by Arte América’s Cultural Arts Fellow (2025), Tomae Hernández
