Mixing It Up

This week, I visited the gallery at Tempe Center for the Arts and saw the show Mixing It Up: Building an Identity. On display is Mexican American art which, as a lifelong citizen of the southwest, I usually find boring. However, this show had a lot of great work with a wide variety of subject matter and mediums. Here are some photos from the gallery. Sadly, I only had my camera phone with me so they're not great quality.

This archway welcomes the viewer at the very front of the gallery. You can't see from this photo, but all of the dots on on the archway are beer bottle caps.

Here's a great shot from the inside of the gallery. The show definitely wasn't too sparse. If anything, it was too crowded. I wish I had more time to look at everything, but I went between classes and I was in a bit of rush. There was a lot of painting, and a surprisingly huge amount of printmaking which I found really exciting.

This was one of my favorite pieces at the show: In-Formation by Monica Aissa Martinez, a local artist. I wish this photo did the art justice.

I think the coolest part of the gallery was the replica of a 1950s kitchen based off of this screenprint by Larry Yanez, called "Cocina Jaiteca."

This image is based off of Yanez's childhood memories of his aunts' kitchens. This scene depicts the mix of Mexican and American cultures. Within the gallery, the radio on top the refrigerator plays a mix of Mexican folk songs and American pop songs. These songs echo throughout the gallery, tying together the whole experience.

Here's a flier that describes the show in more detail. It will be at Tempe Center for the Arts until January, and I definitely recommend going.