Los Angeles-based artist Erick Medel (b. 1992, Puebla, Mexico) creates intimate portraits of immigrant life using a sewing machine and thread much like one would use a paintbrush and oils. His canvas is deep blue heavyweight denim, which provides a dark ground that sets off the brightly colored threads that are his chosen medium.
The resulting work appears soft when viewed from a distance, but up close it vibrates with expressive visual energy.

Medel moved to the United States from Mexico as a teenager, and he positions his work in the context of the wider history of immigrant labor. Denim provides a sturdy substrate to hold the weight of the built-up threads, but it also comes with its own context. 
Medel elevates everyday moments large and small, his work conveys the joys as well as the hardships that together cohere into a vibrant portrait both personal and universal.