The Things We Lay to Rest

Curated by Vanessa Perez Winder

The Frank-Ratchye Project Space is pleased to present The Things We Lay to Rest, an exhibition by studio artist and Latinx Teaching Fellow Wally A. Corona. 

Through intricate ballpoint pen drawings on spontaneously found materials—wood, metal, and shipping pallets—Corona explores themes of emotional turbulence, disillusionment, and the shifts in perception that accompany loss and change. Rooted in the artist’s own experiences and immediate surroundings, these works emerge from the rawness of everyday life, embodying a gritty sense of resilience as discarded materials become artifacts of story and memory. Meanwhile, Corona’s labor and time intensive approach to mark-making—often spending months at a time on a single piece—becomes a meditation on the effort needed to discern what to hold on to and what to abandon. Through this process, Corona reflects on the quiet, often unseen acts of cultivating meaning from chaos.