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Día de Muertos, Living Presence

September 22 – December 10, 2023 Main Gallery
Martha Gabriela Driessen, Mayra y su vestido (Mayra and her Dress), Guanajuato, México, 2021, black and white digital photograph / fotografía digital blanco y negro, 17" x 22", courtesy of the artist

Join us for our thirty-seventh annual Day of the Dead exhibition, to remember the thousands of people who died in the February 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. The exhibition will also memorialize women around the world who have been violated, disappeared or murdered, with a large installation by eighteen local artists. This year the Mexican community lost distinguished artists and dear friends whose lives and work we will also celebrate. 

With flowers, food and drinks, we await the return home of loved ones who no longer walk this Earth. The living presence of loved ones is felt on the Day of the Dead (November 1 and 2) by offering them what they enjoyed in life. This ancient tradition, with Mesoamerican and Spanish roots, unites Mexicans on both sides of the US/Mexico border as they create ofrendas and altars in homes, cemeteries, galleries, and museums to celebrate their lives.

Curated by Dolores Mercado and Gustavo Herrera

Please note: The exhibition opens to the public at 6:00 pm on Friday, September 22nd.

INSTALLATIONS / OFRENDAS
Beata and René H. Arceo (Chicago)
Alejandro García Nelo (Estado de México)
Familia Guadalupe Jiménez (Chicago)
Joan Sebastian Ku Canul (Quintana Roo)
Familia Myrna Salazar (New Jersey/Texas)
Gabriel Moreno and the Alzheimer's Association Illinois Chapter
Gabriel Quintero Velasquez (Texas)

Entrance Mural
Dolores YUDA Navarro and Janín Garcín 

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Pilar Acevedo
Jacobo Ángeles Ojeda
Sabina Ángeles
Alfredo Arreguín (1935 - 2023)
Carlos Barberena
Cecilia Beaven
Christina Carlos
Angela Casas
Guadalupe Casas
Olga Costa (1928 - 1993)
Carmen Chami
Elena Climent
Alma Domínguez
José Domínguez
Martha Dominguez-Diaz
Martha Gabriela Driessen
Pamela Enriquez-Courts
José Esquivel (1935 – 2022)
Sofía Fernández Díaz
Esperanza Gama
Demetrio García Aguilar
Silvia Inés Gonzalez
Maria G. Herrera
Paulina Jaimes
Sam Kirk
Raúl López Reyes
Lucia Maya
Luis Pablo Mendoza
Gustavo Monroy
Ann Murdy
Dolores YUDA Navarro
Ángel Gabriel Ortiz
Maya Ortíz Saucedo
Magdalena Pedro Martínez
Katia Pérez Fuentes
Artemio Rodríguez
Aydeé Rodríguez López
Shuta Ruelas
Diana Solis
Juan José Soteno Elias
José Alfonso Soteno Fernández
Gloria Gloe Talamantes
Maria Tomasula
Jesse Treviño (1946 – 2023)
Patssi Valdez
Alejandra VanHelsing Orvananos
Carina Yepez

Sponsors

Comed Full Color Logo 1
Bofa Lo1 186 280 Copy

The Joyce Foundation
Prince Charitable Trust
Chicago Park District
Illinois Arts Council Agency