"My practice is a form of cultural scraping. I use discarded, “rewanted” objects to honor the stories of underrecognized individuals, peoples, and cultures. My materials are the remnants of everyday life – tattered clothes, orphan socks, broken toys, kitchen utensils, candy wrappers, metal scraps, and the like. Each object, embedded with the touch and memories of their former owners, are vessels of forgotten stories. I assemble these stories into installations and sculptures. Each piece, instilled with craft and care, challenges our contemporary esteem for efficiency, achievement, and bloated consumerism. I offer a different value system that prizes time, touch, and quiet persistence. Castoffs become sacred; the abandoned becomes precious. This transfer of worth reflects the empathetic potential for viewers to connect with the stories I present, to see themselves in one another, and to create a home that encompasses difference.” Mandy Cano Villalobos is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans installation, 2D, performance, and sculpture. Her projects explore ideas of home, memory, and cultural identity. Cano Villalobos exhibits throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, ARTnews, Sculpture Magazine, Hyperallergic, and The Chicago Reader, among others. She is the recipient of awards and grants from multiple organizations including the Gottlieb, Puffin, Frey, and Chenven Foundations, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Cano Villalobos is represented by Lafontsee Galleries in Grand Rapids, MI, Proyecto T in Mexico City, and drj art projects in Berlin. She works in Grand Rapids, MI and Brooklyn, NY.