Dario Robleto:

An Instinct Toward Life

Dario Robleto: An Instinct Toward Life presented a selection of the artist's sculpture born of his direct response to the events of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing commencement of America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The title of this exhibition references a central ambition of Robleto’s work: to bear witness to historical events but to do so by highlighting those episodes in which the human spirit poignantly endures. Co-organized with the Center for the Study of War Experience at Regis University, this exhibition testifies to how art can inform and become a part of the discussion of the war experience.

Robleto’s work recounts the stories of those whose lives have been radically altered by the wars of American history, and they do so from the viewpoints of both major and minor actors in the theatre of battle. He focuses his attention not only on the soldier’s experience, but also makes the widows, children, medical care providers, and family members in charge of mourning rituals primary agents of his stories. Ultimately, Robleto reveals the ways in which the experience of the battle and the home fronts can be powerfully evoked by and embedded in a work of art.

Dario Robleto was born in 1972 in San Antonio, Texas. He received his BFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1997 and lives and works in Houston, Texas.