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Picturing the Border

Tags for: Picturing the Border
  • Special Exhibition
  • Featured
Sunday, July 21, 2024–Sunday, January 5, 2025
Location:  230 Photography
Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries
Free; No Ticket Required

About The Exhibition

Picturing the Border presents photographs of the US-Mexico borderlands from the 1970s to the present taken by both border residents and outsiders. They range in subject matter from intimate domestic portraits, narratives of migration, and proof of political demonstrations to images of border crossings and clashes between migrants and the US Border Patrol. The earliest images in this exhibition form an origin story for the topicality of the US-Mexico border at present, and demonstrate that the issues of the border have been a critical point of inquiry for artists since the 1970s. Many serve as counternarratives to the derogatory narratives of migration and Latino/as in the US that tend to circulate in the mass media.

Capitalizing on the prevalent issues of the border today, Picturing the Border aims to spark vital conversations of what constitutes citizenship, as well as complex negotiations of personal identity as it relates to the border. The exhibition shows through these images that Latinx, Chicano/a, and Mexican photographers have significantly rethought what defines citizenship, nationality, family, migration, and the border beyond traditional frameworks for decades.

Spanish translation: Luis A. Garcia Nevares 

CMA Store

Picturing the Border
By Nadiah Rivera Fellah, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art with contributions from Natalie Scenters-Zapico The US-Mexico border has undergone dramatic changes over the past six decades, becoming increasingly industrialized, urbanized, and militarized, especially in the aftermath of 9/11 and the War on Terror. Mainstream and conservative news coverage has often reinforced or exacerbated such developments, characterizing the border as out of control and describing migrants in derogatory terms, in the process fueling xenophobic sentiment. A foil to this reductive and dehumanizing narrative, this presentation of Latinx photography offers more nuanced portrayals of life in the borderlands. Ranging from the 1970s to the 2020s, images by Louis Carlos Bernal, Graciela Iturbide, and Laura Aguilar, as well as emerging artists such as Ada Trillo, Guadalupe Rosales, and Miguel Fernández de Castro display alternative photographic vocabularies with regard to place, identity, and race. With subject matter spanning from intimate domestic portraits and youth counterculture to border crossings and clashes involving Border Patrol, this richly illustrated volume also features scholarly essays and new work by fronteriza poet Natalie Scenters-Zapico, providing a timely new perspective on life in this fraught and misunderstood region. 134 Pages, 91 images Published July 2024
Picturing the Border
Day of the Dead: Tino Rodriguez & Virgo Paraiso Boxed Notecard Assortment
In Mexican culture the dead remain alive in our memories. Día de los Muertos—celebrated on November first and second each year—represents days when the veils are thin between the worlds of the living and the dead, and those still on Earth can pay tribute to their ancestors and friends who have passed. When welcoming the dead back to the realm of the living, ofrendas (altars) are created and adorned with candles, flowers, offerings of food and drink, and often calaveras (skull decorations). Artists Tino Rodriguez and Virgo Paraiso offer vibrant takes on calaveras in these four jaw-dropping images. Details• 20 blank notecards (5 each of 4 designs) with envelopes in a decorative box• Printed in full color on recycled paper with soy based inks• High-quality 250 gsm card stock• Soft white envelopes• Pomegranate’s notecard sets feature exclusive selections of art from museums and artists around the world Box size: 7.375 x 5.375 x 1.5 in.Card size: 7 x 5 in.
Day of the Dead: Tino Rodriguez & Virgo Paraiso Boxed Notecard Assortment
Tino Rodriguez and Virgo Paraiso: The Ecstatic Kiss of Spring 1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Tino Rodriguez and Virgo Paraiso paint surrealist calaveras (skulls) and magical scenes celebrating human transformation, each brimming with flowers, birds, and butterflies as well as symbolic elements deeply rooted in their personal cultures. Their passion-filled paintings embrace dualities and expound on the complexities of sexuality, spirituality, and mortality in the cycle of life. Piece together the colorful elements of nature, beauty, and fantasy in this 1000-piece puzzle. • Gather with family and friends for puzzle-piecing together!• Our luxury puzzles are crafted with attention to every detail• High-quality 250-GSM matte artpaper for superior color, crisp details, and no glare• Ribbon-cut thick board for snug fit and minimal dust• Produced using thick recycled paper board• Exclusive selection of art from museums and artists around the worldBox size: 13 x 10 x 1.875 in.Puzzle size: 27 x 20 in.
Tino Rodriguez and Virgo Paraiso: The Ecstatic Kiss of Spring 1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Latin American Artists: From 1785 to Now
The essential survey showcasing the work of more than 300 modern and contemporary artists born or based in Latin America Latin American artists have gained increasing international prominence as the art world awakens to the area’s extraordinary art scenes and histories. In an accessible A-Z format, this volume introduces key artworks by 308 artists who together demonstrate the variety and vitality of artwork being made. Focusing on those born, or who have lived, in the 20 Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of Latin America and featuring historic and living artists – both those celebrated internationally and names less-known outside their native countries – this book has been created in close collaboration with an expert panel of 68 advisors and writers. Artists featured include: Allora and Calzadilla, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Francis Alÿs, Olga de Amaral, Fernando Botero, Leonora Carrington, Lygia Clark, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Leonor Fini, Gego, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Carmen Herrera, Graciela Iturbide, Alfredo Jaar, Frida Kahlo, Guillermo Kuitca, Wifredo Lam, Teresa Margolles, Marisol, Cildo Meireles, Ana Mendieta, Beatriz Milhazes, Ernesto Neto, Hélio Oiticica, Gabriel Orozco, José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Zilia Sánchez, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Cecilia Vicuña, Adrián Villar Rojas and Faith Wilding. The advisory panel includes: Deri Andrade, David Ayala-Alfonso, Fernanda Brenner, Estrellita B. Brodsky, Tatiana Cuevas, Anna Di Stasi, Andrés Gustavo Duprat, Raphael Fonseca, Zanna Gilbert, Laura Hakel, Yina Jiménez Suriel, Maya Juracán, Pablo Léon de la Barra, Miguel A. López, Bernardo Mosqueira, Gerardo Mosquera, Rodrigo Moura, Laura Orozco, Taisa Palhares, Maylin Pérez, Catherine Petitgas, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Florencia Portocarrero, Ileana Ramírez Romero, Amy Rosenblum-Martín, Emiliano Valdés and Michael Wellen. Specifications: Pages: 352 pp Illustrations: 308 illustrations
Latin American Artists: From 1785 to Now

Sponsors

This exhibition is made possible with support from Anne T. and Donald F. Palmer.

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous supporters, Gini and Randy Barbato, the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment, Florence Kahane Goodman, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. and Margaret F. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, Michael and Cindy Resch, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.