07
September
2017
|
07:48 AM
America/Chicago

Alumni Fall Social Series

Summary

By Sheryl E. Taylor

The Alumni Association Fall Social Series is featuring Rio Grande Valley artist Rio Natalia Anciso, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., on Oct. 26 in the University of Houston-Downtown's O'Kane Gallery (One Main Academic Building, 1 Main Street).

Anciso creates art predicated on realities and legends of her upbringing. Her works are visual records of family, community and border culture along her native Rio Grande. She researches vernacular arts like pano arte, handkerchief art believed to have emerged from Chicano prisoners in the 1940s; and the huipil, embroidered Mayan textiles worn by indigenous women in Southern and Central America. These art forms are reconfigured to tell contemporary stories of life along the Texas/Mexico border. Juxtaposing beautifully colored, watercolor-drawn images of flowers indigenous to Texas against stark, monochromatic media images, meticulously rendered in pen, Anciso offers the beauty of home against grisly depictions of the Mexican Drug War. Using these tools on domestic textiles, such as handkerchiefs, pillowcases, and bed sheets, Anciso's work examines psycho-political struggles of life along La Frontera.

Join us for an evening of art and conversation with UHD President Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz.