Robert Lee Contreras II was born to Ecuadorian and Mexican-American parents in Los Angeles, CA and was raised in the suburb of Houston, TX. Despite having Latino parents, Contreras’ parents never taught him Spanish because his grandfather felt it would be a disadvantage. Influenced by this experience, Contreras’ work often examines generational differences in relation to identity, culture, conformity and his own feelings of alienation between him and his immigrant mother and Mexican-American father and Contreras’ adolescence growing up in the quiet oppressiveness of Texas suburb. Working in photography and video, Contreras work is built off producing surreal effects by composing images through material objects, self-portrait and images from his cell phone. What results is the development of an uneasy, often absurd “in-between” that reconstructs public and private space. Here Contreras attempts to take agency and autonomy over an identity that doesn’t fit easily or categorize into a consensus box, while simultaneously challenging perceptive prejudices.