An Art Exhibition curated by the Chicano/a Murals of Colorado Project
October 15, 2021 – February 26, 2022
This visual arts exhibit curated by the Chicano/a Murals of Colorado Project will honor the Colorado Chicano/a tradition of using public art and murals in service to the people and communities that are historically dehumanized and oppressed in US society.
Featured artists
Alicia Cardenas, Nani Chacón, Gregg Deal, Cal Durán, Emory Douglas, Víctor Escobedo, Carlotta Espinoza, Rita Flores de Wallace, Juan Fuentes, John Paul Granillo, David Ocelotl García, Anthony García, Patsy García, Jodie Herrera, Chelsea Lewinski, Sabinita López Ortiz, Yolanda M. López, Emanuel Martinez, Anthony Maes, Sylvia Montero, Jaime Molina, Adri Norris, Tony Ortega, Virgil Ortiz, Edica Pacha, Ratha Sok, George (8X) Stewart, Leticia Tanguma, Leo Tanguma, Jerry Vigil, Carlos Sandoval.
Curatorial Statement
Smoking Mirrors: Visual Histories of Identity, Resistance and Resilience challenges viewers to bear witness and embrace the transformative power of the dualism of light meeting dark as represented by Indigenous North America’s
resistance to European colonization. Inspired by the Nahuatl mythology of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca,
this exhibition curated by Chicano/a Murals of Colorado Project at Museo de las Americas features paintings
and three-dimensional works of art created by twenty-four of Colorado and New Mexico’s muralists and
artists who narrativize histories of resistance and resilience from the moments of contact up to current
abolitionist and decolonization social movements.
During the Civil Rights Era of the mid-twentieth century, we saw the rise of monumental community art in public spaces as a way to uplift and express community histories that were silenced and excluded from official narratives. Artists used their talent to communicate the injustices experienced but also the beauty and dignity that was present in their communities. These murals and works of art are constantly threatened by erasure and these artists are seldom recognized as influential and vital to the creation of our cities. Smoking Mirrors seeks to rectify and affirm artists’ contributions by exhibiting their storytelling and artistic abilities, bringing muralists together, and providing platforms for dialogue with community members. Evocative imagery and objects will highlight the more than five hundred
years of sociopolitical, economic, and cultural history that have contributed to the creation of racialized
identities throughout Mexico and the United States.
New paintings and sculptures along with historical objects on loan from the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College and History Colorado will highlight peoples’ resistance to erasure and assimilation and will foster creative space for imagined futures. This exhibition will bring together muralists, artists, and community members in an effort to continue to inspire action and transformation in the places we call home.
