New Mexico State University (NMSU) is showcasing the work of conceptual multimedia artist Celia Álvarez Muñoz in its latest exhibition at the NMSU Art Museum. According to a press release, the exhibition features over 35 artworks created by Muñoz over four decades.
The exhibition, titled "Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding," highlights the artist's playful and witty style, which is often characterized by her use of bilingual puns and mistranslations in both text and image.
The exhibit will commence with an artist reception on October 20th at the UAM in Devasthali Hall. The reception and the exhibition are open to the public and free of charge. The exhibition will run until March 2nd.
Curated by Kate Green, the chief curator at Philbrook Museum of Art, and Nancy E. Meinig, curator of modern and contemporary art at Philbrook Museum of Art, along with Isabel Casso, associate curator from the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, the exhibition features expansive immersive installations, photography series, and books.
In a press release, Green and Casso explained that the title of the exhibition signifies a break in Muñoz's artistic practice, but also captures how she has continuously challenged categorical boundaries, breaking the bindings that separate the individual and the collective.
To coincide with the exhibition's opening, Radius Books, a Santa Fe-based non-profit organization, will release a comprehensive book containing installation photographs and previously unreleased archival content in full color. The book will be accessible throughout the duration of the exhibition.
Born in 1937 in El Paso, Muñoz's upbringing in the borderland during the post-Great Depression period deeply influenced her art. "I always carry the cultural, geographical and political matrix of the borderland with me," Muñoz said in a press release. "And it surfaces in my work, as I see it."
The NMSU Art Museum's new exhibition provides an opportunity for art enthusiasts to explore the captivating and thought-provoking works of Celia Álvarez Muñoz.