Contemporary Ex-Votos Provides New Perspectives on Culture at Exhibition
Opening in April, the ‘Contemporary Ex-Votos—Devotion Beyond Medium’ exhibit at UNLV displays ex-votos the New Mexico State Museum provided. Curated by Dr. Emmanuel Ortega Rodriguez, the gallery exhibits paintings, sculptures, and videos from 19 contemporary Latinx and Latin American artists.
The exhibit remains open at the East Gallery of the Marjorie Barrick Museum/Harry Reid Center until November 23, 2024.
Ex-Votos
Ex-votos are a type of retablo (a small painting depicting miracles painted on tins and found materials). They symbolize a vow fulfilled during a crisis and are created and offered to a god or saint as a sign of gratitude.
The exhibition portrays this type of art mixed with every artist’s style, intention, and resourcefulness of materials. Each artist showcases their own unique blend. In addition, ex-votos are a distinctive type of art because they’re neither fine art objects nor historical documents of a certain time.
Not fitting in either category, people often view the art form as “curious” and “naive” objects of the past, according to the gallery’s description. Those two words provide a backdrop of sorts when stepping back and admiring all the art presented as a whole. The art responds to the ritual aspect of ex-votos in ways that challenge aesthetic, class, and gender norms, expose colonial hierarchies, and offer critiques through political satire.
These artists used their stories, along with the tradition of ex-votos, to point out prevalent flaws in today’s culture. They also express their private lives in a public setting, as showcased by one artist in the gallery, Guadalupe Maravilla.
Ex-votos Artist – Guadalupe Maravilla
Guadalupe Maravilla’s art covers the entirety of a wall present in the gallery.
His paintings are encased in his signature organic frames that combine luffa, plant fibers, and glue. These works of art expose his private life with the help of Mexican artist Daniel Vilchoi. To help him process personal events that have shaped Guadalupe’s life, he used the communal tradition of ex-votos. In keeping with tradition, the afflicted went to a local artist to relate their experience. The artist would render the narrative in paint, and the devotee would take the ex-voto to a church or shrine.
Maravilla recounted the story to Vichoi, the retablo artist, who painted what he said to him. Daniel, by tradition, is making Guadalupe’s personal message seen and heard as a gesture of gratitude. One of Guadalupe’s ex-votos is named “I am sending love to my eight-year-old self Retablo.” His eight-year-old self struggled and escaped the civil war in El Salvador.
Now, the story is encapsulated and seen in colors and brush strokes that paint his illness, survival, and gratitude. It includes contemplation of themes that link healing, devotion, resilience, and peace with the past and the present through the process of creation. These themes are a prominent and important key factor in the works of art in the gallery. As such, the displayed paintings bring out new perspectives on current social, political, and cultural issues prominent today.
(Article continues after the ad)
Please follow our fantastic site sponsors! They make content like this possible! 🙂
Main Artists in the Gallery
Fifteen artists in the gallery responded directly to a large collection of old retablos by creating new artworks. They worked and consulted with the curator and the New Mexico State University Art Museum, custodians of the retablo collection. Said to be understudied in the iconographic and ideological aspects of traditional Mexican ex-votos, these artists created a conversation between the past and their work.
The 15 artists that responded to New Mexico State University’s retablo collection are Justin Favela, Eric J. Garcia, Francisco Guevara, Dan45 Hernandez, Juan Molina Hernandez, John Jota Leanos, Yvette Mayorga, Daisy Quezada Urena, Krystal Ramirez, Sandy Rodriguez, Xochi Solis, Alfredo Vilchis, Daniel Vilchis, Jose Villalobos and Guadalupe Maravilla.
Additional Contributing Artists
Along with the 15 Other artists also contributed to the gallery, along with the 15 artists who participated in the dialogue project. This included Las Vegas artists, including Daisy Sanchez, Zully Meija, and Elena Brokaw. Chicago artist Ariella Grandaos was also added to the gallery, and her video was shown there. A total of 19 distinctive artists are present in the gallery.
These artists’ methods, materials, and context are prominent and fully displayed.
Xochi Solis’ collages consist of hand-dyed papers, paints, plastics, and found materials.
Alfredo and Daniel Vilchis’s paintings of other people’s stories trigger emotions with words and colors. Sandy Rodriguez merges Spanish colonial mapping and image conventions to show problems rooted in historical cycles of the past.
With clothing like a sombrero and family pictures, one sees one side of the artist’s upbringing. The context of time changing is seen in Dan45 Hernandez’s mixed media. His work references cartoons, games, toys, and cassette tapes that provide a mixture of depth, humor, and prominence of certain items present for the artist’s own upbringing.
John Jota Leanos’s animations focus on cultural clashes that have shaped present society.
Ariella Granados’ art focuses on tragedies depicted in ex-votos’ stories turned into comedies that align with the hazy perspective of our digital world.
Justin Favela creates sculptures from materials used to make piñatas to reinterpret and reclaim cliche symbols associated with Latinx culture.
Krystal Ramirez’s art uses hand-made gypsum, cement blocks, and acrylic paint to depict Baroque architecture and the labor necessary to build and maintain the city.
#GetinMotion with Contemporary Ex-Votos
These are brief descriptions of the materials, intentions, and emotions presented in some of the artworks in the exhibition, mixed with the information presented in the gallery. With many artists overtaking this gallery, the descriptions aren’t enough to fully capture the works of art. With so much portrayed, viewers interpret the art in many ways.
All these artists consider the complexities and contexts of themes expressed earlier. Image, religion, culture, and deeply personal stories all combine to magnify certain aspects relating to families, labor, class, society, the world, and more. Thanks to the dialogue between these artists and the past, they keep the ex-voto art form alive and spread it to new people.
The Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium exhibit at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art is open to the public until November 23, 2024. Stop by to see these one-of-a-kind pieces of art, and check out the museum’s Instagram for other events.
Thank you to our supporters and sponsors!
Our magazine is reader-supported! If you enjoyed our content, please join our Patreon community!
As always, we want to thank our Patreon ‘Cultivator’ supporters and sponsors who help make content like this possible.
The following Patron(s) supported the production of this article:
Crystal Gropp
The following sponsors supported the production of this article:
Viva La Compost
