Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre were preteens when their artistic family moved to Southern California. The duality of living on both sides of a contentious border significantly influences their collaborative blown-glass mixed-media work; their sculptures and installations not only critique cultural stereotypes but provoke insights on contemporary society. “Perhaps our greatest contribution to the medium of hot glass is our approach,” say the brothers. “We strive for the freedom of self-expression, unencumbered by the mores of taste and propriety.”

So much so that during their 1995 exhibition at MACLA in San Jose, California, an angry visitor destroyed all of their works. “A disastrous moment like that really focuses your will and intent,” says Einar. But the brothers, who had studied at California State University at Long Beach, left their successful business producing lamp-work figures and followed the advice of mentor glass artist Therman Statom (a 1999 ACC Fellow) to follow their own path. They did, continuing to make, exhibit, and teach.

Their inspirations include baroque church art, Mesoamerican art, Mexican folk art, German expressionism, science, history, and cultural politics. Their oeuvre includes colorful, exquisitely rendered, hand-blown glass objects. They’re also infamous for installations in which they combine their glass pieces with TV sets, cell phones, minivans, and other objects of American consumerism in neobaroque assemblages that embody a garish Mexican aesthetic while critiquing crass American commercialism.