Source Material

Harold Mendez is no stranger to artist residencies. The Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based multimedia artist has participated in some of the most prestigious ones. For each, Mendez’s innate curiosity has led him to discover materials not typically used to make art—old cracked glass-plate negatives found in Rauschenberg’s estate, eucalyptus bark from Marin County, and even bone.

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In Napa Valley, works from his output (several unseen) come together for the first time at Bella Union—there is art made at the Headlands Center for the Arts in California’s Marin, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation at the late artist’s estate on an island off Florida, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in rural Maine, and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center on the Lake Michigan coast in Wisconsin, and now new pieces made at the Northern California winery.

“We saw an opportunity to create something new, a residency that fosters conversation between art and wine and the similarities between the artist and the winemaker,” says Beth Nickel of Bella Union, which invites fine artists from around the world to engage with its estate for one month, culminating in commissioned work for its permanent collection.

The California land that the winery sits on was originally acquired via a Mexican land grant, a common transaction in the area before the United States took over the region in 1848. For the first iteration of its residency, Bella Union wanted to pay homage to this history by selecting an artist with Mexican heritage.

Mendez, who was born to Mexican and Colombian parents, immersed himself in the Napa Valley wine culture when he followed winemaker Brooke Bobyak Price and her team. He completed his residency in parts, spread out during the harvest season and met with the winemakers to learn how they worked, what they did, and how the grapes from the harvest transformed into wine. “We all spoke in Spanish. We got a sense of their story, my story. I was really asking them about how that region has changed,” he recalls. “They're starting to see themselves and their families working in other positions, not just the picking of the grapes, but also in front of house and as wine-makers.”

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Designed by Mike Niemann and JK Architects, Bella Union’s Art Nouveau-inspired interior is decorated with plush velvet banquettes, curved wood paneling, and gold accents that act as a stylish backdrop for Mendez’s work. The Jewel Box, an exclusive, floating cubed glass room that overlooks the vineyards and lush landscaping, offers an opportunity to see most of Mendez’s work along the way up. 

In the Atrium, the tasting room at the winery entrance, a 2012 sculpture made of eucalyptus bark from his Marin Headlands residency hangs on the back wall veiled by a gold “curtain” at the front, welcoming visitors. Nearby hang two porcelain discs, one glazed in a silky jade-green and the other in a lustrous gold from his John Michael Kohler Arts Center stints. Another room boasts a print of a dew drop-dotted spider web (an homage to Louise Bourgeois) printed from a cracked negative Mendez discovered at the Rauschenberg estate. 

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The phrase “Let us gather in a flourishing way,” is printed in bold black letters across a tasting room’s molding, inspired by the words of Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Latino Poet Laureate. A pair of long, thin porcelain vessels filled with water and flowers, flank the entrance. And a few of Mendez’s “comma” sculptures—small gestural pieces that he covers with materials like borax, cobalt oxide, and salt, or iron dusts—line the walls. A landscape depicting the Napa Valley through materials used in the winemaking process hangs above two blue velvet chairs. For his Bella Union magnum opus, Mendez used lees—the rich, almost syrupy, burgundy-hued sediment that is discarded—to create a mountain range on top of a cork canvas, marbled with graphite, and topped with a copper moon. 

Mendez’s art fits in seamlessly with the decor of the winery, serving as moments of intrigue between all the wine drinking. “It sets the tone for what this program will become: a meaningful, lasting dialogue between tradition and transformation,” says Nickel. Viewers get a sense of Mendez’s fascination with organic materials, process, history, and community—and sense of what’s to come. 

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