Carlos Rosales-Silva: Pase Usted

Visitors to SAMA in August will have the opportunity to watch an artist at work.

Painter and muralist Carlos Rosales-Silva will be at the Museum August 7 to August 21 to create a site-specific mural in the Great Hall. Known for his use of bold colors, highly textured surfaces, and abstracted forms, Rosales-Silva is the inaugural artist in SAMA’s Gateway Series, an ongoing project that will enlist contemporary artists to activate the cathedral-like space. Titled Pase Usted—Spanish for “welcome” or “come in”—Rosales-Silva’s mural will remain on display through September 14, 2025.

Currently based in New York, Rosales-Silva has a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA from New York City’s School of Visual Arts. He has exhibited his work throughout the US and in Mexico City. Last year, the artist completed a mural which spans the fifteenth-floor elevator lobby of the Empire State Building.

Rosales-Silva will paint Pase Usted directly on the wall to the left upon entering SAMA. The mural will continue along the grand staircase.

In a recent interview, the artist said he drew inspiration for Pase Usted from SAMA’s collections. The mural will feature two vibrantly colored forms shaped like archways—one rounded and one corbeled, respectively representing European and precolonial architectural histories. Another motif merges curving wave and plantlike shapes the artist found in artworks throughout the Museum.

“The swirling, wave-shaped pattern is found on Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Oceanic, Japanese, Chinese, and pre-Columbian vessels,” Rosales-Silva said. “It was so fascinating to find this intersection.”

Born in El Paso, Rosales-Silva grew up on the US-Mexico border surrounded by creativity.

“I think I was really drawn to making things because of my family,” he said. “My family are craftspeople, musicians, party planners. They are very creative people. They had to be that way to survive in a lot of ways, but I think they also took a lot of joy in making the things they lived with and making things for other people.”

Carlos Rosales-Silva. Courtesy of the artist and Ruiz-Healy Art. 

El Paso’s mix of American, Mexican, and Indigenous cultures, architecture, and many murals also influenced Rosales-Silva, not to mention the surrounding desert landscape and often-breathtaking Southwestern sunsets.

“It took a little bit of distance to realize that,” he said. “So, all of those influences are maybe not the reason I started making art, but certainly laid the groundwork for what I think about.”

As an artist, Rosales-Silva is “obsessed” with bright colors—how different combinations are perceived and affect the eye—and texture. In his studio practice, he makes his own paints, adding sand and crushed stone to echo the rough surface of adobe buildings.

“An artist’s work is endless playing and experimenting,” he said. “So those are the two big things for me that are really always present in the work.”

When Rosales-Silva is creating a site-specific work, there are many things he must take into consideration, including the physical space: How many doors and windows are there? Where are the outlets? Is there signage? Etc.

Then, there is the context. In this case, that is SAMA, an encyclopedic museum with collections that span 5,000 years.

“It’s culture from so many different eras, from so many different places,” Rosales-Silva said. “To be in a space like this, it’s so inspiring, but also challenging. It’s kind of like: What are the relationships I’m drawn to and what is unique about this museum? Which, there is so much that’s unique about it. So it’s been really lovely to do that here specifically.”

This project is made possible by Bank of America. 

Generous support also comes from Christopher Hill.

Additional funding has been provided by the Meadow Family in memory of Dr. Kathryn Meadow Orlans (1929-2022). 

Commissioned by the San Antonio Museum of Art and produced by Carlos Rosales-Silva with assistance from Cassidy Fritts. 

Top: Carlos Rosales-Silva, Garden Path, 2023, Acrylic, plastic and glass bead, and crushed stone in acrylic paint on panel, 16.5 x 20 in., © Carlos Rosales-Silva, Courtesy of the artist and Ruiz-Healy Art.