SANTA FE — Shiny, low-relief animals and icons made from hammered tin contrast with vibrant horizontal-striped serape textile backgrounds in Esteban Ismael Durán’s solo exhibition, “Tales of Memories and Transformation” at El Zaguán. Although people have been weaving serape blankets and making hammered tin crafts since the 19th century, I don’t think anyone has ever combined the two in such a startlingly contemporary way.

I love a good figure-ground contrast, and it doesn’t get more contrasty than bright-colored textiles and unpainted tin. “Angels in the Sky, Take Me Home” and “A Prayer for the Bees” feature tin birds and bees, which, like lead Zeppelins, defy the laws of physics. Meanwhile, the ironically titled “A Prayer for Rain” features a grid of fish in an underwater scene. Durán’s colorless mirrored figures are like memories of nature from a thoroughly denatured future — cleaner and more attractive than real fish, birds and bees, but more unsettling — like robotic chrome replicants.