Acts of Service presents new paintings and works on paper by Danie Cansino, exploring two forces that have shaped her Chicano family across generations: military service and mass incarceration. The exhibition centers on her grandfather's journey from WWII paratrooper to Folsom prison inmate, tracing similar patterns through subsequent generations. Using 18th-century Baroque techniques—grisaille underpainting, layered glazes, tenebrism—Cansino renders family portraits that emerge from dark voids into warm light, catching figures in snapshots from an expansive story. The works examine layers of pride, love, and loss within the American dream.
