Esteban del Valle is an interdisciplinary artist born in Chicago, Illinois in 1984.  He completed his MFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2009, where he received a Presidential Scholarship and the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship. His work investigates the performance of leadership, the role of the artist as a public figure, and the effects of class and privilege on institutions in the form of paintings, murals, sculpture and video art.

She used to work at an ice-cream shop. Let each flavor that came through the store touch her tongue. Savored it and told her mom matter-of-factly that eating ice cream was part of her job. Then, the hot air of a bathroom. Arms against the wall. Arms against the floor. A drop of his sweat down her throat.

Unremember everything – / the smell of rotting plums, his hands around throat, / the way honey rolled from his tongue like rain. /

the Blue Ridge Mountain chain wraps around my father’s words / freight minimum wage assembly line / the big city pull, they say/ 

I can tell by your hands that you haven’t prayed enough /  mine  crumbled obelisks  / under a searing sun   overgrowth through the dry cracks  /  are your fingers glued at  /  the tips?