SANTA FE, N. Mex. — Because the rising reputation of designer colours like “greige” and its unhappy beige cousins suck the vibrancy out of our environment, the Museum of Worldwide Folks Artwork stays a bastion for shade lovers. The Museum Hill establishment holds eye-popping folks artwork from across the globe, and its latest exhibition, La Cartonería Mexicana/The Mexican Artwork of Paper and Paste, could also be its most vivid providing so far.
Primarily drawing from the museum’s everlasting assortment of over 200 items of cartonería (Mexican papier-mâché), the exhibition explodes throughout the Hispanic Heritage wing in paleta-like tones of mango, watermelon, and avocado. These hues are drawn from the standard masks, sculptures, toys, and piñatas on show. Ruth D. Lechuga’s black-and-white photographs from Sixties and ’70s festivals, distributors, and makers round Mexico Metropolis add cultural and historic context.
A central gallery consists of photographs and a video of the Linares household of artists at work and shows a number of of their conventional alebrijes, protecting chimeras utilized in celebrations of Dia de los Muertos. Alebrijes have been initially conceived by Pedro Linares López in 1936, and his household has made the brightly-painted creatures for generations.
Visitor curator Nora Dolan and co-curator and Museum of Worldwide Folks Artwork Director of Schooling Leslie Fagre labored with Mexico Metropolis-based cultural consultants Franz Meyer Museum Curator Marta Turok and creator of Mexican Cartoneria: Paper, Paste, and Fiesta Leigh Thelmadatter to analysis and current the exhibition.
Set up view of La Cartonería Mexicana/The Mexican Artwork of Paper and Paste (2023-24) on the Museum of Interantional Folks Artwork, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Set up view of La Cartonería Mexicana/The Mexican Artwork of Paper and Paste (2023-24) on the Museum of Interantional Folks Artwork, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Figures, tigre dancers (c. 1960), paper, paste, paint, celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico
Set up view of La Cartonería Mexicana/The Mexican Artwork of Paper and Paste (2023-24) on the Museum of Interantional Folks Artwork, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Felipe Linares, Skeleton Dandy in swimsuit seated together with his canine (1992), papier-mache, wooden, paint, Mexico Metropolis, Mexico
Ricardo Linares Garcia, Calavera Man Promoting Judas Figures (2010), paper, glue, wooden (cane), gesso, paint, Mexico Metropolis, México
Paula Garcia Linares, Skeleton Girls Making Sugar Skulls Sculpture (2007), paper, paste, wooden, paint, foil, Mexico Metropolis, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Mauricio Hernández Colmenero, Transformational Masks (2004), paper, paste, acrylic paint Guanajuato, Mexico
Felipe Linares, Skeleton Determine (1994), paper, paste, paint, México Metropolis, Mexico
Set up view of La Cartonería Mexicana/The Mexican Artwork of Paper and Paste (2023-24) on the Museum of Interantional Folks Artwork, Santa Fe, New Mexico; piñatas by Francisco Rodriguez
La Cartonería Mexicana / The Mexican Artwork of Paper and Paste continues on the Museum of Worldwide Folks Artwork (706 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill, Santa Fe, New Mexico) by November 3. The exhibition was curated by Nora Dolan and Leslie Fagre.