Raphael Montañez Ortiz – A Contextual Retrospective

The eight-decade retrospective dedicated to artist, educator, and founder of El Museo del Barrio, Raphael Montañez Ortiz, a pioneer in the US neo avant-garde, is the largest exhibition-to-date dedicated to the artist. In contextual relations with peers working in Europe, Latin America and the US, the show spans narratives around identity, decolonization, and ethno-aesthetics.

Domesticanx

Domesticanx brings together a group of intergenerational artists whose practices address the private sphere through works related to healing, spirituality, decoration, and the home. Curated by Susanna V. Temkin, the show is inspired by the concept of “domesticana,” first theorized by artist, scholar, and critic Amalia Mesa-Bains in the 1990s. Drawing from Mesa-Bains’ own acknowledgement that all “terminologies must remain porous, sensibilities never completely named, and categories shattered,” Domesticanx expands the artist’s original Chicana and feminist theory through the lens of contemporary Latinx intersectionality. Featured artists include Amalia Mesa-Bains, María Brito, Amarise Carreras, cielo félix-hernández, Joel Gaitan, Melissa Misla, and Nitza Tufiño.

Juan Francisco Elso: Por América 

Juan Francisco Elso: Por América investigates the brief yet significant career of the late Cuban artist Juan Francisco Elso (1956-1988), who emerged as part of the Volumen Uno (Volume One) generation of contemporary artists who gained international recognition in the early 1980s. Organized by El Museo del Barrio and curated by invited guest curator Olga Viso, the contextual show places Elso’s work in dynamic dialogue with a multigenerational group of artists active both inside and outside of Cuba, the Caribbean, and throughout the Americas, including Ana Mendieta, Glenn Ligon, Belkis Ayón, and Luis Camnitzer, and Tiona Nekkia McClodden. 

Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah

Methuselah is a digital artwork by the Cuban-born and Houston based artist Reynier Levya Novo that virtually reproduces the transnational migratory journey of a single monarch butterfly, tracking its travel from southern Canada across the United States to Mexico. Embodied through the life of a virtual avatar, the epic journey is hosted on an open-access website, commissioned by El Museo del Barrio with support from the VIA Art Fund. The project calls for the protection of a natural species at risk of extinction, the acknowledgement of the false security of borders and the necessity of transnational cooperation and coordination for planetary survival in our contemporary, post-pandemic moment. 

PAST EXHIBITIONS

Explore El Museo’s past exhibitions throughout the years through images and descriptions. Below are this month’s highlights.