With its spiritual and religious connotations, de Nieves's installation transforms Pioneer Works from a creative space to a contemplative one.
AX Mina
November 30, 2025
— 3 min read
Installation view of Raúl de Nieves: In Light of Innocence at Pioneer Works (all photos AX Mina/Hyperallergic)
We’ve had stained glass in the Western world since the times of ancient Rome. Yet the art form reached its zenith in the later Middle Ages, with the rise of the great cathedrals. Before the broad availability of paper, designs began with the vidimus — Latin for “we have seen” — crafted with wood and chalk. By the early 16th century, according to the Victoria & Albert Museum, paper allowed for a separation — one person could illustrate the design, and these designs “could be saved, reused and handed down from glazier to glazier. This made stained glass an exceptionally collaborative art.”
In Light of Innocence, a stained glass solo exhibition by Raúl de Nieves, currently on view at Pioneer Works, is also in many ways a collaboration — across tarot, Mexican folklore, and Catholicism, as de Nieves draws from these visual traditions to create a grand cathedral in the central gallery. By installing art with strongly spiritual and religious connotations, he’s transformed the space from a creative one to a contemplative one.
Installation view of Raúl de Nieves: In Light of InnocenceWhen I arrived, I immediately gazed upward at the far back wall, where a calavera, or skull, occupies the top circular window. Figures signifying faith, hope, and love adorn the rectangular windows below. Just beneath them is a large installation of windows powered by a lightbox that includes depictions of flies, skeletons, steps under an archway, and the Mesoamerican deity Tlaltecuhtli.
As the exhibition text notes, “Unlike traditional religious hierarchies, tarot allows for multiple perspectives and characters to hold equal power.” And unlike a traditional cathedral, the second and third floors of Pioneer Works allow visitors to view the stained glass rows directly and from above, rather than just from below. The lightbox can be seen at eye level by climbing to the top floor and looking down on the installation.
This enables, for example, a closer look at a set of three panels featuring a figure that looks like a blend of the Queen of Cups and Queen of Swords, another figure that resembles the meditative King of Pentacles, and a panel that reads “And we are here to contemplate the wonders of life.”
Installation view of central stained glass sequence in Raúl de Nieves: In Light of Innocence.It’s a rare experience to be able to look downward at stained glass. From below, these panels evoke judgment and command, as if the gods of tarot themselves were reminding me of my purpose in life. From above, they are all too human, as confused and bewildered about the fact of existence as I am.
Flies, a surprising motif in stained glass, appear on the three adjacent panels. Back down on the ground, I got a better sense of their significance. One panel titled “The flies will lay their eggs” — an apparent reference to lyrics from Marilyn Manson’s “Tourniquet” — sits alongside another one with a figure of the Hanged Man tarot card. In New York City, flies might be associated with garbage and decay, rather than spiritual insight, but they have tremendous ecological importance as bridges between death and life.
This feels, in many ways, like the very message of de Nieves’s installation. Death, life, faith, hope, love, calaveras, flies, and the royalty of tarot — their meanings all lay in how we shift our perspective.
Installation view of Raúl de Nieves: In Light of Innocence featuring the stained glass sequence with the Queen of Cups, Queen of Swords, King of Pentacles, and “And we are here to contemplate the wonders of life.”
Installation view of Raúl de Nieves: In Light of Innocence featuring panels with a focus on flies.
Installation view of Raúl de Nieves: In Light of Innocence featuring a window with a calavera image.Raúl de Nieves: In Light of Innocence continues at Pioneer Works (159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn) through December 14. The show was curated by Gabriel Florenz.
