Noreste a Virtual Exhibition
Curated by Katherine Moore McAllen, Carlos Limas, and Angela V. Scardigno
The Center for Latin American Arts is proud to present the virtual exhibition Noreste, which has brought together the joint talent of renowned artists from both sides of the Rio Grande River to showcase binational contemporary art and visual culture in Texas and Northern México from the Rio Grande Valley. This exhibition features the work of Rigoberto González (originally from Reynosa, living in the Rio Grande Valley and a member of the UTRGV faculty), and Mario Jiménez Díaz (Born in Matamoros, México, living there today), and César A. Martínez (originally from Laredo, Texas, living in San Antonio).Noreste presents the work of these artists to explore the unity and identity of the liminal space that is the borderlands in South Texas. Works in the exhibition Noreste contemplate ideas related to the eclectic “mestizaje” (mixing) in our culture represented by the artists’ unique narratives and artistic genres. This exhibition also juxtaposes the contrasting, and often conflicting, artistic movements of the Renaissance and Baroque, the Neo-Barroco, the corpse collages of the Surrealists, the linear drawings of Egon Schiele and the Expressionists, as well as the Chicano movement and its celebration of “Mexicanidad” and “rasquachismo” (reclamation of the vernacular), as reinterpreted and honored by the artists working within the Modern borderland context. These works visualize the artists' perspectives and identity working in Texas, Northern México, and both regions simultaneously, and this exhibition provides critical examinations into the commercialization of culture, immigration crises and human displacement, violence related to drug trafficking along the border, and social activism. Noreste presents these works to share how the artists César A. Martínez, Rigoberto González, and Mario Jiménez Díaz have responded to these ideas in their oeuvres and seek to make a lasting impact on the transformation of contemporary art in their lifetimes.
