The public is invited to an art opening called “JuarezX: Dragged Across Borders”, opening Friday, October 16 at 5:30 p.m. in the McCray Gallery.
The exhibit features work by artists from Juarez who have been literally and conceptually dragged across borders.
“We are invited to reflect and question the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, migrant status and being,” said Peter Bill, McCray Gallery Director. “The artwork explores the U.S. Mexico border as a place in its own right, a dreamland, a laboratory, a labyrinthine maze whose walls are filled with poetic language and images.”
The artists include Yorch, an urban artist presenting graffiti art on panel highlighting life on the border; Gabriela Hernandez, an undocumented Seaburry Fellow and NMHU alumna, whose work features a series of banners representing the struggle of the LGBTQ community; Pulso Ans, a graffiti artist by night and art gallery owner by day, commands spray paint canisters to produce pieces that play with the idea of life and death; Peter Bill, assistant professor of New Media at WNMU; and Hector Dominguez Ruvalcaba, associate professor of Queer and Border Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Bill and Ruvalcaba will exhibit documentation of guerrilla projections of poetry by Ravalcaba onto the streets of Ciudad Juarez.
Prior to the exhibit opening, Hernandez will lead a Joteria Workshop from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The workshop will educate audiences about the undocumented LGBTQ community.
Scheduled from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., the opening includes food, live music and a brief lecture by Ruvalcaba.
The events will initiate Glam Week, a week of activities educating the community about the LGTBQ community and the world of drag. Event sponsors include The Center for Gender Equity, WNMU’s Latin American and Latino Studies Program, the Office of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Expressive Arts.
For more information, visit http://thecenter.wnmu.edu/glam.