Virtual | Marcela Guerrero & Daisy Nam on Donna Huanca’s exhibition at Ballroom Marfa

9am PT / 10am MT / 11am CT / 12pm ET

Please join Marcela Guerrero, Jennifer Rubio Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Daisy Nam, Curator at Ballroom Marfa, for a discussion on Donna Huanca’s exhibition ESPEJO QUEMADA, on view at Ballroom Marfa through January 22, 2022. The two will also discuss Guerrero’s work on influential recent exhibitions of contemporary art from Latin America, including the exhibitions Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 at the Hammer Museum.

Donna Huanca presents a series of new works commissioned by Ballroom Marfa in her exhibition ESPEJO QUEMADA. Huanca creates experiential installations that incorporate paintings, sculptures, video, scent and sound. The profound experiences and memories of Huanca’s first visit to Marfa in 2005 inspired the work in the exhibition. The artworks draw on visual, cultural, and mythological cues informed by feminism, decolonialism and the artist’s personal and familial histories, while simultaneously engaging with the biodiversity, geology, and dark skies of Far West Texas. The sky was particularly striking for Huanca–animated with cosmic and extraterrestrial forces while also revealing the natural rhythms of the sun and moon.

ESPEJO QUEMADA, Huanca’s first exhibition since the pandemic, uses mirrors as formal and metaphorical devices to respond to changing conditions. The title, which translates to “burnt mirror” in English and is purposefully feminized in Spanish, alludes to Huanca’s feminist praxis. “Espejo Quemada” suggests reflections of the current moment, portals to the past and future, and catalysts for combustion and change. Click here to read more about the exhibition!

Admission

• ArtTable Circle Members– Free
• All other ArtTable Members – $10
• Non-Members – $15
• Members may bring a guest for an additional $5.

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Accessibility: Please note that live closed captioning will be available for this program. Please email programs@arttable.org if you require additional accommodations.

About the Speakers

Marcela Guerrero is the Jennifer Rubio Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Recently, she was part of the curatorial team that organized Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945. In summer 2018, Guerrero curated the exhibition Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art. From 2014 to 2017 she worked as Curatorial Fellow at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, where she was involved in the much-lauded exhibition Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985, organized as part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative and guest-curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and Andrea Giunta. Prior to her position at the Hammer, she worked in the Latin American and Latino Art Curatorial department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) where she served as Research Coordinator for the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA). Guerrero’s writing has appeared in a variety of publications and has contributed articles to numerous exhibition catalogues. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Guerrero received her BA from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, and holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Daisy Nam is the curator at Ballroom Marfa, a contemporary art space located at the borderlands of Far West Texas. She recently co-edited a publication, Best! Letters from Asian Americans in the arts with Paper Monument. Previously from 2015–19, she was the assistant director at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University where she organized exhibitions, publications, and public programs working closely with artists to engage with the campus community and public at large. Prior, she curated and produced seven seasons of talks, screenings, performances, and workshops from 2008–2015 as the assistant director of public programs at the School of the Arts, Columbia University. Curatorial residencies and fellowships include: Marcia Tucker Senior Research Fellow at the New Museum, New York (2020); Bellas Artes, Bataan, Philippines (2020); Surf Point in York, Maine (2019); Gwangju Biennale Foundation, Korea (2018). She holds a master’s degree in Curatorial and Critical Studies from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Art History and Cinema Studies from New York University. She has taught at RISD, and lectured at Lesley University, Northeastern, SMFA/Tufts, SVA as a visiting critic.

About Ballroom Marfa

Ballroom Marfa is an internationally recognized non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Marfa, a rural town of less than 2,000 people in Far West Texas. Established in 2003 by Virginia Lebermann and Fairfax Dorn, the contemporary art and performance space is housed in a 1920s-era ballroom and is free and open to the public. With generous support from individuals and foundations, Ballroom commissions new site-specific and site-inspired projects and gives artists and musicians the opportunity to engage with the magnificent landscape of the Big Bend. Read more about Ballroom Marfa here.

This program is presented in collaboration with Ballroom Marfa.
Public programs for ESPEJO QUEMADA are generously supported by Humanities Texas.

Images:

1. Installation view, SCRYING CON DIOS(A), 2021, in Donna Huanca: Espejo Quemada, June 26, 2021–January 2, 2022, Ballroom Marfa. Courtesy the artist and Ballroom Marfa. Photograph by Makenzie Goodman.
2. Marcela Guerrero, Photo by Javier Romero
3. Daisy Nam