Just returned from installing and celebrating the opening of the third iteration of Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium at The Marjorie Barrick Museum at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
On the heels of our hemisphere’s recent celestial event of a total eclipse, it was a joy to revisit my site-specific installation—A tourist in a dream—consisting of 25 collage works on handmade paper co-mingled with devotional imagery excerpted from the ex-votos collection at New Mexico State University (NMSU) & found images of heavenly actualities of planets and far-flung galaxies.
Photo by Krystal Ramirez. Courtesy of The Barrick Museum of Art at The University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Photo by Krystal Ramirez. Courtesy of The Barrick Museum of Art at The University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
When researching for this exhibition, I was particularly interested in how ex-votos operate as visual testaments of gratitude & reflections on daily life, as well as a means for ordinary folks to find clarity during challenging times in their personal lives and the social and political atmosphere of their daily existence. This desire for objectivity and clarity through artmaking resonates with me as I continue my own artmaking practice during the complex emotional and physical landscape of global unrest and suppression of human rights.
This journey of artistic synthesis is ongoing and doing it in public and in community is the only path forward that I can see and I am always grateful for the opportunities to do so. Thank you to curator Dr. Emmanuel Ortega for believing in me & always being down to share your significant wisdom. Shout out to the amazing staff at UNLV under Alisha Kerlin for their enthusiastic cooperation to make this version come to life. Once again, BIG CONGRATS to all the artists who I continually source deep wells of inspiration from Justin Favela, Eric J. García, Francisco Guevara, Dan45 Hernandez, Juan Molina Hernández, John Jota Leaños, Guadalupe Maravilla, Yvette Mayorga, Daisy Quezada Ureña, Krystal Ramirez, Sandy Rodriguez, and José Villalobos.
Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium on view APRIL 19 — NOV 23, 2024 at The Marjorie Barrick Museum in Las Vegas, NV.