Retablos exhibition opens Sept. 30 at NMSU Art Museum

“Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium,” the first exhibition to pair 19th–20th century retablos from the NMSU Permanent Art Collection with new works by contemporary Latinx artists, will open Friday, Sept. 30, at NMSU Art Museum (UAM), located in Devasthali Hall, 1308 E. University Ave., at the intersection of University and Solano Drive.

Guest curated by Emmanuel Ortega, Ph.D., who is the Marilynn Thoma Scholar and an assistant professor in art of the Spanish Americas at the University of Illinois at Chicago, this exhibition sheds light on the understudied iconographic and ideological aspects of ex-votos, a type of retablo (small devotional painting) depicting miracles painted on tin and found materials, UAM said in a news release.

“Artists undertake a dialogue between historic and new works allowing us to make sense of ex-votos beyond ethnographic and artistic hierarchies.” Ortega said.

Invited artists include 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, Xochi Solis and José Villalobos. 

“I am particularly taken with the work that was created by the artist Yvette Mayorga for this exhibition,” UAM Director Marisa Sage said. “Yvette was here for a weeklong residency, during which she completed a personal pilgrimage to the Santuario de Chimayo in New Mexico she began over 20 years ago.”

UAM houses the largest collection of Mexican retablos in the United States.

“This exhibition demonstrates the important place retablos hold in the history of the Americas,” UAM said. “It recontextualizes studies of contemporary devotion in Latin America and the U.S. by commissioning artists to research the retablo collection. This show results in site-specific works that consider how retablos are more than by-products of colonialism, illuminating current socio-political issues of class, race, and gender through artistic methodologies of resistance.”

Ortega, who has a Ph.D. in art history from the University of New Mexico, “has lectured nationally and internationally on images of autos-de-fe, 19th-century Mexican landscape painting, and visual representations of the New Mexico Pueblo peoples in Novohispanic Franciscan martyr paintings,” according to https://arthistory.uic.edu/profiles/ortega-emmanuel/. His book project, “Visualizing Franciscan Anxiety and the Distortion of Native Resistance: The Domesticating Mission,” is under contract with Routledge. He is a recurrent lecturer for Arquetopia Foundation for Development, the largest artist residency in México.

Ex-Votos exhibition events at UAM:

• Friday, Sept. 30, 5:30-7:30 p.m.: Opening reception; artists introduction at 6:30 p.m. Performance by DJ Mira Mira, aka Xochi Solis, a mixed-media artist from Austin, Texas. In addition to her studio practice, she spins records with the Austin chapter of Chulita Vinyl Club with a focus on the preservation and performance of Tejanx culture.
• Saturday, Oct. 1, 1 p.m.: Exhibit Walk-Through with Emmanuel Ortega. Ortega will discuss themes present in the NMSU retablo collection, commissioning artists for this exhibition and his collaborative curatorial approach.
• Thursday, Oct. 13, 5:30 p.m.: Virtual artist lecture with exhibition artist Francisco Guevara, as he discusses his artistic practice as well as his work with the Arquetopia Foundation, an international nonprofit arts and cultural foundation and residency program.
• Thursday, Oct. 27, 5:30 p.m.: Panel discussion, "Curatorial Practices in the Borderlands." Join Kerry Doyle of UTEP’s Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, Josie Lopez of the Albuquerque Museum, Ed Gomez of Mexicali Biennial, Azul Arena editor in chief Edgar Picazo and Christian Diego Diego of Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez in a panel discussion moderated by Emmanuel Ortega. They will discuss their approaches to curating, exhibiting and writing about the land and artistic practices specific to the borderlands. Visit https://nmsu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XXlK7UjOSyaFj5lhqrQhrg.