Somewhere between cartoonish stylization and tenebrism, Catch me, 2024, converges genres, histories and styles. Cruz’s graphic and impish figure is frozen in motion, housed in a sepia toned environment, or lack-thereof. Drawing on African American vernacular traditions and folk art, the bold, graphic shapes and narrative elements allude to Jacob Lawrence, who explored African American history through expressive forms. Simultaneously, the piece nods to the Baroque, with its stylized appropriation of dramatic play of light and dark and the figure’s energetic movement. This historical layering references the colonial and post-colonial depictions of African American figures, particularly those associated with escape, resistance, and the ongoing struggle for liberation. The framing device around the figure suggests entrapment, constraint, and the fight for freedom.

Catch me is imbued with a cinematic quality, the figure suspended in mid-motion, merging the visual languages of animation, photography, and painting. Cruz continues to expand on the interplay between adversarial (art) historical perspectives, temporalities, genres and dispositions.