Jesus Treviño’s current exhibition, “Broken Rejas,” at the South Texas College Library Art Gallery, is an uncanny negotiation of the home, change, and destruction at the U.S.-Mexico border. Painted and sculpted burglar bars are a common thread throughout the exhibition. These bars signify a duality, as they function as both a barrier and a window to whatever’s on the opposite side. Typically installed over windows and doors to prevent unauthorized entry, burglar bars are rooted in protection. And yet, windows themselves evoke a sense of home. The monochromatic palette in the artwork invites contemplation of a gloomy reality. Through this tension, the barred window becomes a space for the artist to reflect on his relationship with the Rio Grande Valley and his family.
Treviño is a multidisciplinary artist who was born and raised in Brownsville. He holds a B.A. in Studio Art from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (2018) and an M.F.A. in Painting/Drawing from the University of Texas at Austin (2022). He is the founder and director of the Flower Shop Art Residency in Brownsville, and, outside of art, he is a member of the band Upon Your Dead Body, based in the RGV.
As a child, Treviño regularly visited Matamoros with his family. Gradually, he stopped going due to various conflicts in the region. This, coupled with growing up primarily speaking English and a strong sentiment in social circles to leave the Valley, brought a certain discontent to Treviño, which he overcame through his experiences at UT-Austin. During his time at UT, the artist was faced with what he calls “the process of healing, which artmaking is the residue of. It’s a way for me to pay homage to and reconnect with family and with the Valley.” Regardless, despite his attempts, Treviño, in a one-on-one conversation with me, discusses that there’s a “constant tension under the surface of this land that is being developed, but falling apart.”
“Lamb Sin Boca” is an overt reference to Boca Chica Beach. The painting is partially covered with paper clay, creating a subtle texture that becomes more apparent the closer you get. The painted paper-clay lamb, positioned closest to the viewer, draws from a stone cemetery monument near Treviño’s residency headquarters. In the background, SpaceX architecture emerges, with burglar bars separating the headless, innocent lamb from these structures. In this metaphorical depiction, the lamb represents Boca Chica Beach as an innocent site of destruction.
In 2025, Starbase, located in the heart of Boca Chica Beach, became a city in Texas after being voted into existence primarily by Elon Musk’s SpaceX employees, who were living and working within the city limits at the time of the vote. Starbase is approximately 23 miles east of Brownsville, and the newest Texan city is proof that change is happening rapidly in the Rio Grande Valley, even as environmentalists sound the alarm about SpaceX’s effects on the region’s fragile ecosystem.
Next, “Broken Rejas” is grandiose in its mixed painted and sculpted elements. Burglar bars bearing U.S. Customs and Border Protection symbols juxtapose a fresco of artists Gil Rocha and Ray Madrigal, who stand beside a window fitted with painted bars. Treviño’s use of mesquite charcoal and motor oil grounds the work in the material and cultural landscape of the borderlands; mesquite is native to the region, while motor oil — what the artist calls the “blood of cars”—signals movement and circulation. Together, these materials reinforce the Rio Grande Valley as a space shaped by constant motion and underlying tension. By placing Rocha and Madrigal within this framework, Treviño introduces them — and, by extension, the viewer — to a version of the RGV fractured by the realities of border surveillance.
The artist further consults the notion of security in “Home Invasion.” The installation contains two sculpted brick pier columns supporting a burglar-bar gate that interrupts the gallery space. Several keys lie on the pier columns and on the floor. Burglar-bar-style gates suggest restrictions on the space beyond, yet the artist hands over numerous keys to the viewer, complicating that boundary. The work points to how access is controlled, unstable, and sometimes misleading. “Home Invasion” acts in dialogue with “Broken Rejas” and “Lamb Sin Boca,” revealing how familiar spaces are altered and threatened, not just by who enters, but also by the systems meant to secure them, such as Customs, which are unreliable.
Throughout “Broken Rejas,” Treviño examines how Brownsville becomes a site of surveillance, change, and false protection. The Rio Grande Valley remains the artist’s home, yet something about it feels unsettled, as if the space itself is no longer fully recognizable. It is within the apprehension between belonging and unease that the exhibition takes shape.
“Broken Rejas” is on display at the South Texas College Library Art Gallery in Weslaco through May 31, 2026.
