(Above) Gallery 400 University of Illinois Chicago, IL, (January 12 – March 16 2024)

Sandy Rodriguez. Borderlands No. 2: They almost got me (Pajarita Wilderness). Hand-processed watercolor on amate paper. 31.5 x 47 in. Courtesy of Beth Rudin DeWoody. Image courtesy of the artist and J6 Creative © 2019

Sandy Rodriguez. Plantas medicinales para el susto No.1 (Tonatiuh yxiuh ahhuachcho), Hand processed medicinal watercolor on amate paper with 23k gold, 22 3⁄4 x 15 1⁄3 in, 2022

Curated by: Dr. Emmanuel Ortega
University Art Museum, Contemporary Gallery, Bunny Conlon Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery, and the Margie and Bobby Rankin Retablo Gallery

Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium, is the first exhibition to pair 19th–20th century retablos from the NMSU Permanent Art Collection with new works by contemporary Latinx artists. Guest curated by Dr. Emmanuel Ortega, Marilynn Thoma Scholar and Assistant Professor in Art of the Spanish Americas at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), 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. 

The NMSU Art Museum houses the largest collection of Mexican retablos in the U.S. This exhibition demonstrates the important place retablos hold in the history of the Americas; 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.

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. 

Text: NMSU Art Museum

https://uam.nmsu.edu/exhibitions/exhibition-pages/contemporaryexvoto/contemporaryexvoto.html

Exhibition Schedule for Contemporary Ex-Voto:

Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art University of Nevada, Las Vegas (April 19 – November 23, 2024)

Gallery 400 University of Illinois Chicago, IL, (January 12 – March 16 2024)

Contemporary Ex-Voto: Devotion Beyond Medium, New Mexico State University, Art Museum, (September 30–December 22, 2022)