Minerva Cuevas (Mexico City, Mexico) Migration is Natural 2019, digital image, size variable

MIGRATORY with Minerva Cuevas

October 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022

View the exhibition catalog

View Migratory Yellow Pages / La Seccíon Amarilla de la Migracíon

Downstairs Gallery

516 ARTS presents MIGRATORY, led by renowned Mexican artist Minerva Cuevas as part of her “International Understanding Foundation.” MIGRATORY was developed as a a conceptual structure highlighting solidarity networks and creative environments in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. The artworks in the exhibition are created by multiple artists with Cuevas, bringing together a mural in the gallery, prints, video, glass, and the Migratory Yellow Pages / La Seccíon Amarilla de la Migracíon. This book provides information for migrants to have a welcoming transit, and is comprised of contributions from local and international visual artists, writers, and organizations. From poetry and visual art to practical resources, the book is meant to be a welcoming handbook and cultural resource for asylum seekers and people in transit. Through memory and imagination, all of the works in the exhibition reflect on experiences of the militarized border zone. The exhibition and the Migratory Yellow Pages / La Seccíon Amarilla de la Migracíon were developed by the Stanlee & Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at The University of Texas, El Paso (a partner in Desierto Mountain Time, a regional collaboration spearheaded by 516 ARTS), with the El Paso-based nonprofit Azul Arena. The Albuquerque incarnation of the exhibition at 516 ARTS features a localized booklet to accompany the Migratory Yellow Pages / La Seccíon Amarilla de la Migracíon, featuring a new round of artwork and information for asylum seekers and people in transit in Albuquerque.

Minerva Cuevas (b.1975, Mexico City) is a conceptual and socially-engaged artist who develops projects in response to politically-charged events. Her research AND social change ideals. She creates research-based projects that allow the audience an insight into the economic and political organization of the social sphere through site-specific actions and artworks. She is the founder of Mejor Vida Corp. (1998) and the International Understanding Foundation (2016). Member of irational.org since 1999.She has had over a dozen solo exhibitions including in New York, Berlin, Mexico City, London, among other cities around the world. Her work has been part of group exhibitions in major museums worldwide including: SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA; Museo Jumex, Mexico City, MX Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris (MAM/ARC), Paris, FR; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE (2010); Redcat, Los Angeles, USA (2006); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL, among others.


Fall Newsletter

Albuquerque Journal

‘Migratory’ pairs the migration of plants and animals with human movement for survival, by Kathaleen Roberts for the Albuquerque Journal, September 30, 2022