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The Power of Then
Curated by Patty Ortiz

September 10, 2009 through January 11, 2010
The Power of Then highlights contemporary Latino/Chicano artists that utilize popular cultural artifacts and their associated memories to create grand visual statements. The Latino/Chicano experience is a myriad of perspectives that mix into a multi-dimensional scene. From the streets of San Antonio to the coastal areas of California, the Chicano/Latino imprint is so diverse that it cannot be labeled - though many have tried. There is a certain playfulness, a touch of crass, a deep pocket of traditions, countless layers of colors, a bit of revolution and, of course, many loving memories of family. It is seen in the trinkets bought at the mercado to the religious icons placed in home altars. When purchasing a Chicano artifact - a pinata for the birthday party, a fan for the hot days to come, a molcahete for the kitchen, a beaded saint bracelet for a new-hip look, one is buying a memory, a tradition, and a history. The Latino/Chicano artists in this exhibition understand the power of these ornaments and have carefully raised their power with new translations and contemporary practice. The results present windows into this vivid cultural past and a hard view into the new trans-cultural reality.

ARTISTS

David Almaguer
David Almaguer, born in 1976, is a native of San Antonio and a member of the Texas Canons of Proportion. He has briefly studied art at the University of Texas in San Antonio and Our Lady of the Lake University. Over the last decade, Almaguer has exhibited his work in different venues in and around the San Antonio area. Using hand-cut stencils and aerosol paint, he has developed an ability to use iconic images to represent various memories from his childhood.

Linda Arreola
Linda Arreola is a Los Angeles based artist with a background in sculpture and architecture. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in sculpture from California State University Los Angeles and received a Master of Architecture from UCLA. Early in her career she created sculptural works of simple geometries constructed of wood and steel cable. Following her studies in architecture, she went on to explore painting, installation and printmaking. She is one of the featured artists in the book, "Contemporary Chicana/Chicano Artists". She recently completed a Public Art Commission for the East Los Angeles Civic main plaza in May 2008.

Rolando Briseño
Rolando Briseño's work is included in many museum collections such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Museo del Barrio in NYC, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC, the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Juan, PR, Mexic-Arte Museum, and the Jack S. Blanton Museum in Austin. Some of the universities that hold Rolando's work are the University of Texas in Austin and San Antonio, Arizona State and the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. He has public art works at Houston's Inter-Continental Airport, Trinity University (San Antonio), Austin Convention Center, Cypress Hills Library in Brooklyn, and the North White Plains RR station also in New York. Rolando lives and works all over the planet.

Alex Hernández
Alex Hernández is a native of Oaxaca, Mexico but grew up in the U.S. He received a full scholarship to the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design for his BFA in painting and has recently began working with embroidery and fiber art. Alex has exhibited localy in galleries and museums including Museo de las Americas.

Franco Mondini-Ruiz
Franco Mondini-Ruiz was raised in Texas. Drawing from personal experience, his art pieces are often assembled from found objects that have a direct correlation to his life. Following a tradition of postmodernism, he integrates a variety of imagery and iconography into his art. His irreverent paintings and objects create humorous paradoxes between kitsch and sophisticated, or feminine and masculine identity. Identifying with his Mexican background Mondini-Ruiz also cleverly explores the similarities and disparities between Chicano and Western art traditions.

Chuck Ramirez
Born in 1962, Chuck Ramirez lives and works as an artist and graphic designer in San Antonio, TX. Primarily working in large-scale photography, Ramirez's oeuvre includes prints and sculptural installations. His work investigates the rituals and forms of everyday life and is charged with metaphors of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religion.

Frank Zamora
Frank Zamora was born in Denver Colorado in 1958. He received his BA from Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" in Mexico, D.F. in 1994 and has since been exhibiting in the U.S. and Mexico. Zamora fuses contemporary art with traditional New Mexican folk art using materials, methods and iconography that are over 200 years old.

Fine Line
Curated by Patty Ortiz
Artists: Carlos Capelán | Máximo Gonzalez | Mauro Ariel Koliva | Lucas Monaco | Ricardo Rendon

October 2, 2008- August 21, 2009
The horizon line, separating the earth from the sky, is rendered many times as a simple stroke but, in fact, is the observation of deep continuous space. Conceptually similar to a repeating decimal, which endlessly moves to infinity, this popular edge is also seen as an emotional trigger for the future and times past. Artists for centuries have interpreted this phenomenon balancing both the conceptual and emotional implications for the viewer to add on their own personal reading. Fine Line investigates this power of line and its multitude of symbolic, illusionary and physical qualities. Additionally, this exhibition goes a step further and asks three well-known artists from three distinct areas of the Americas to demonstrate their personal perception of the horizon, the ultimate fine line. Each artist will respond to a horizon line that has been drawn literally across the Museo walls. The line will be the constant for all three, yet the results will be unique revealing each artist's point of view, history, and visual vocabulary.

Inside/ Outside/ North & South
Curated by Patty Ortiz

August 21, 2008- September 14, 2009
Our Founding Fathers envisioned a country that would guarantee basic freedoms to all its citizens and in 1776 declared equality to all people. Yet, constantly, lines are drawn between "us" and "them" out of fear and suspicion. Today, as our demographics change and with global commerce, it is becoming more challenging to remain open to the integration of diverse peoples at work, in our schools and neighborhoods. The Museo de las Americas with a vision to build understanding and acceptance to the diverse cultures around us, joined the El Museo Nacional de Etnografia y Folklore in La Paz, Bolivia and the Univiersidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico in assembling a trans-American group of teens from various backgrounds to investigate present day stereotyping in these three areas in hopes of initiating discourse regarding this worldwide issue.

Space invaders
Curated by Patty Ortiz

February 8, 2008– August 3, 2008
Space Invaders explored the space we live in and how it has changed both physically and culturally. Artists, as space creators/ invaders, have pushed their boundaries to include public environments as potential canvases. The artists in this exhibition were a sampling of a new breed of artistry that have blended physical, aesthetic and social questions to create multidimensional results

Muniz: Remastered
Curated by Patty Ortiz

October 4, 2007- January 20, 2008
Muniz Remastered: Photographs From the West Collection, organized by Devon Dikeou in partnership with the West Collection.
Muniz Remastered presented a selection of reinterpretations by Muniz of masters such as Corot, Durer, Aaron Siskind, Rembrandt, Waritor, and others in Muniz’s unique artistic style. These works were new approaches to infamous images and included in this exhibition were reinterpretations to well-known works such as Theodore Gricault’s Raft of the Medusa and Cezanne’s Still Life With Apples. These pieces as well as all of Muniz’ creations completed since the mid 1990’s were fabricated with unlikely mediums of chocolate, trash, sequins, thread, peanut butter and jelly, sugar, dirt, leaves, junk, and other materials. A final photograph is printed in each case to document his fragile inventions. Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1961, Muniz is now based in New York.

Con Confection
Curated by Patty Ortiz

July 12, 2007– September 9, 2007
Confection, usually defined as an elaborate creation or a sweet combination of materials, is the key to this grouping of artists that used embellishment and decoration in their work. From traditional embroidery to contemporary techniques, these artists embellished, decorated, and captured complex patterns as well as botanical and faunal imagery. Traditional artists relate nature’s intricacies and signal their communities, while contemporary artists embedded these designs with underlying implications.

Altar Girls
Curated by Patty Ortiz

February 16, 2007–July 1, 2007
Altar Girls examined women’s complicated attributes of sanctity and strength viewed from historic legends and traditional media to post-modern insights and materials. The juxtaposition of women saints with contemporary views of coming-of-age girls conveyed the fundamental female aspects of purity and courage. Whether they are women of the heavens or the young women of this world that they inspire, the artists of Altar Girls offered stunning depictions of the miracle of the feminine.

Mapping Nativity
Curated by Patty Ortiz

October 27, 2006– December 31, 2006
Mapping Nativity presented over 100 dioramas of traditional and non-traditional nativities underscoring the diverse methods, materials and iconography practiced throughout Latin American countries and the American Southwest.

Heaven and Earth
Curated by Patty Ortiz

June 16, 2006– September 8, 2006
The Museo de las Américas presented a contemporary look at centuries-old Spanish Colonial art through the architecturally-designed collaboration with the Agency for Architecture. The exhibit featured 40 artworks from the Jan and Frederick Mayer Collection of Spanish Colonial Art from the Denver Art Museum.

Magic Doctors: The Curandera Revealed
Curated by Patty Ortiz

February 2, 2006 – May 21, 2006
In partnership with Opera Colorado, the Museo presented an exhibition revealing the visions and rituals of the curandera past and present. A curandera is a female Hispanic folk healer that practices complementary/ traditional medicine. Healers, who can be male or female, young or old, are highly respected, and frequently called upon by their communities. Among the practices most common to curanderos include the biofield practitioner that works with corrientes electricas, the yerbero (herbalist), the partera (midwife) and the sobador (masseur). The curandera is skilled to treat a wide variety of illnesses. The combination of folk remedies, herbal medicine, and the art is still used widely today.

NEVER Leaving Aztlan
Curated by Patty Ortiz

February 2, 2006– May 21, 2006
Never Leaving Aztlan addressed Latino artists that use conceptual strategies to create strong relationships between the rich heritage of their culture and contemporary artistic practice. In this new trans-cultural society, Latino artists have not left their past, their Aztlan. Quite the opposite, they are rooted in Aztlan and have created a new visual language colored with their past traditions and shaded with present day constructs forming works that are rich in texture, humor, and power.

Planet Colombia
Curated by Patty Ortiz

October 14, 2005– January 22, 2006
Participating artists: Adolfo Cifuentes (Colombia), Randy Clark (United States), Rodrigo Facundo (Colombia), Rafael Fajardo (United States), Ana Mercedes Hoyos (Colombia), Katie Knight (United States), Nadin Ospina (Colombia)
Through a kaleidoscope of artistic viewpoints, Planet Colombia explored Colombia’s rich culture, complicated civil war, and common stereotypes and prejudices. Through the power of image, humor and unexpected materials, Planet Colombia embraced the extraordinary beauty and ugly underbelly, funny peculiarities and sad truths, bringing to light the contrasting facets of this complex country.

Nehuen: Mapuche Power
Curated by Patty Ortiz

June 9, 2005– September 25, 2005
Nehuen: Mapuche Power highlighted the superb traditional artistry of the Mapuche People alongside contemporary viewpoints by Chilean and Argentinean artists that addressed their indigenous past. "Nehuen", a Mapundungu (Mapuche language) word for "life force" and good "energy" exemplifies the power and strength of the Mapuche people to maintain their traditions in the face of numerous attempts by the Incas, the Spaniards and present day forces to let go of their cultural and environmental rights. This exhibition revealed, through exemplary objects from the David Irving Collection and works by contemporary artists today, the cultural thread that continues through time within the souls of the people of the southern region of South America, the Mapuche

Siqueiros: Spirit of a Revolutionary
Curated by Patty Ortiz

February 10, 2004– May 28, 2005
Featuring 21 selected works created between 1918 and 1969, this exhibition highlighted Siqueiros’ visual depiction of Mexico’s past and present struggles and his vision of a promising future of freedom, justice, peace and prosperity for all of Latin America. Works completed during Siqueiros’ last period while in jail from 1960 to 1964, as well as preparatory studies, started in 1965, give form to his most ambitious mural project which occupied the rest of his life: The March of Humanity in Latin America towards the Cosmos. Misery and Science (1965-1971).