In Siete Palabras, Cedrick Dela Paz returns to the roots that have shaped his earlier body of work, where he has constantly explored symbolic critiques of misguided faith and the contradictions that lie within such an intricate system. Now that his visual language has matured and refined throughout the years, he revisits these ideas and reframes them against the systemic backdrop of our local prison infrastructure. This exhibition contends with his perpetual fascination with the poetic contrasts that exist within our own social reality, like how in a place swarming with pervasive violence and systemic corruption, a sanctuary full of creativity, hope, and forgiveness could exist. In essence, Siete Palabras shares the last words of Christ before he is reborn in divinity and the whole world is purged from darkness and all the evil acts of man. So in the wake of these paintings, we find ourselves asking:

Where else could rebirth exist more but in places so consumed by the maws of sin?

-Dave Lock