​OC3 GALLERY

Expanding the visual language of her ongoing US DOLLS series, Maysen brings nineteen paper-doll-like figures to human scale within two life-size dioramas addressing lived realities of immigrants in Texas. Through architecture, paperwork, fencing, and construction materials, Beyond Papers, People examines agency, dignity, and the ways political and social systems shape individual lives, creating environments that move between home and institution, protection and confinement, belonging and exclusion.

As viewers move through the exhibition, their role shifts. In Home of the Brave (Dreamer), they approach the domestic space of a fictional Dreamer from its threshold, drawing close and looking through its windows without fully entering. In Beyond Papers, People (Is This the Land of the Free?) / Somos Más Que Papeles, the public enters and navigates among figures and barriers. A third interactive work, I Proclaim, presents a participatory podium where visitors are invited to proclaim their humanity in their own words.

Together, the works explore how immigrants are understood through documents, categories, and systems, addressing questions of legal status, mobility, security, labor, and belonging. They ask us to “look beyond those systems and see the individual lives they contain, define, or constrain”.

Named Best Artist by D Magazine and a 2025 awardee of the Nasher Sculpture Center Artist Grant in Honor of Jeremy Strick, Claudia Maysen is a multidisciplinary artist blending conceptual art and representation to explore social issues from the perspective of a Mexican immigrant and American citizen. Maysen earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from Monterrey Tech in Mexico, where she also trained in Drawing and Painting. In 2024, she completed an artist residency at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD). Recent exhibitions include solo shows at 5 Points Gallery (Milwaukee) and Artes de la Rosa (Fort Worth), as well as group shows such as New Texas Talent 33, Texas Vignette, Marfa Invitational, 2025 OCSFA Rising Stars (Dallas),and Absurdity at Woman Made Gallery (Chicago).

Exhibition Programming

Artist Talk: October 10, 4 – 5 pm (English/Spanish)

Cut-paper/Papel Picado on Tyvek workshop: October 24, 2 – 4 pm (English/Spanish)

Beyond Papers: Art, Storytelling, and the Right to Be Seen discussion: November 7, 3 – 5 pm

Closing Reception w/live activation by Dallas’ literary community: November 14, 6:30 – 8 pm