Guest Curated by Danielle N. Cunningham and Mary Grace Bernard, this exhibition emphasized the altar as both a physical and non-physical space for personalized ritual exchange between humans and the divine. By pairing contemporary artists alongside religious ofrendas, retablos, and other iconography from the museum’s collections, the exhibition illustrated the altar’s inherent transcendence of time and space. These new altars reject any singular context, operating as platforms of resistance through which altar-makers reinterpret traditional practices and reclaim power from mainstream institutions.
This exhibition includes 11 artists: Sierra Montoya Barela, Alma Trevizo, Ester Hernandez, Jolene Yazzie, Judy Miranda, Yreina Cervantez, Rose B. Simpson, Grace Gutierrez, Louis Trujillo, Jude Sanchez, and Ana Mendieta’s Estate. In addition, items from Museo’s private collection will be on display and curated by Museo’s Collections Manager, Laura Beacom.