#mexic-arte

The Mural project #elmeromuro

Working at Mexic-Arte Museum has been a learning experience from grants, coordinating productions and over all keeping an art space that is non-profit running and relatively staying small as an operating budget.

My first BIG project has been over seeing the Artist in Residence project and Mural project for VIVA, the annual day of the dead festival the museum has been hosting in Austin TX since it’s start in the 80′s. This year marks the 35th year that found Sylvia Orozco and the rest of the Mexic-Arte Staff have created a festival that is culturally significant but also artistically avant-garde.

I first encountered KUNIKLO through a friend, I was instantly enamored with their sense of space and color. Putting together the mural project was not easy, but I think it was a great experience and I had a lot of fun looking back at how great and epic the mural is. Normally artist only cover one part of the mural but for this special occasion the museum allowed us to make a massive queen mural.

I asked the collective to create a mural for us based on the idea of Dia De Los Muertos and the idea of death as a transcendence. If they could possibly add some Alebrijes (since it was the theme of the museum’s festival this year) it would be great! The project could not have been done without the help of Paulina Dosal-Terminel and the staff and volunteers at Mexic-Arte Museum.

First we had Diego Mireles Duran, also an immigrant and RGV decedent like myself, set down the background. Diego had an amazing imagination and a feel for texture. Working WITH the murals numerous layers of paint and texture, he created a sort of gradient with neon spray paint followed with small shapes of zebra patterns. When I asked him about his inspiration  Diego noted “I like inscribe intentions to call things into [the mural]. Since it’s day of the dead, I wrote down my ancestors names, my abuelito…the experience of commemorating them, thinking of them is there [in the mural].”  Diego spent days working on finishing the backdrop of the mural, originally a orange and purple gradient turned into something much more, a spazz of color over a deep purple headstone.

Artist Jose Luis Sanabria (one of the founding members of KUNIKLO collective and formally known as Julo or Who)  also traveled from San Francisco to finish the mural with his fantastical drawings. His work sealed Diego’s mural with images of creatures that were inspired by Alebrijes. Who is also a talented tattoo artist ( I tried to also get a tattoo from him but the mural swept up our time, guess I’ll make the trip to the bay area!)

We spent the nigh projecting Who’s drawings on the wall, having drunk tourists from 6th street spilling over to our project. We also had some issues with these new electrical scooters that are sweeping the nation.

A silly photo of us all!

The mural text reads: Thanks to life, which has given me so much It has given me a heart that shakes in its frame, When I look at the fruit of the human brain, When I look at the good so far from the bad Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto Me dio el corazon que agita su marco Cuando miro el fruto del cerebro humano, Cuando miro al bueno tan lejos del malo from the song "Gracias a la Vida" of Violeta Parra"

Kuniklo: @kuniklo_collective

Diego Mireles Duran: @fayeg0

Cheraya Esters: @cherayae

José Sanabria: @whotattooedyou

Luis Sanabria: @fruitylands

Olivia Warner: @tchochkeeeeeeee

Paloma Mayorga, Poderosa II, 2016. Digital c-type print

July 14 – August 27, 2017 Main Gallery

Opening Reception Date: Friday, July 14, 2017 Members Preview: 6 – 7PM Public Hours: 7 – 9PM Admission: $10 General Admission, Free for Museum Members Refreshments: Antojitos by Cool Beans & Specialty Cocktails Sponsored by Dulce Vida Live Music: Tiarra Girls 8 – 9PM Parking: $10 Frost Bank Tower Parking Garage at Brazos & 4th St.

Mexic-Arte Museum is pleased to announce YLA 22: ¡Ahora!, the twenty-second installment of the Museum’s annual emerging Latinx artist exhibition. Guest curated by Alana Coates, YLA 22: ¡Ahora! features eight artists from across Texas confronting prominent issues of the contemporary Latinx experience in the United States.

YLA 22: ¡Ahora! arrives at a time of a complex socio-political climate in the U.S. This includes an administration with a vehement focus on the Mexican border, widespread economic inequalities, increased racial tensions, and subsequent hate crimes on the rise. Within this context, eight emerging artists delve into personal negotiations of being Latinx today. The foci of gender confines, issues along the U.S./Mexico border, and power disparities in the world are at the core of their practices.

NACIMIENTOS Traditional Nativity Scenes from Mexico December 8, 2017 – January 7, 2018 SOUTH GALLERY

Date: Thursday, July 27 Time:  6 – 7:30PM Admission: $5 General Admission; Free for Members

This month Mexic-Arte Museum takes a look back at its collection of serigraphs by Amado Maurilio Peña. Peña was born in 1943 and raised in Laredo, Texas. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Texas A&M University in Kingsville, Texas. As an artist, Peña became a figure in the Chicano/a Movement in which artists were integral in depicting the struggles of the movement including civil rights, farmworker rights and education. Peña’s Yaqui ancestry also played an important role in the content and sensibility of his work as he was recognized as an Artisan of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona.