“The Archaeology of Memory,” which runs through Jan. 12 at the San Antonio Museum of Art, represents the first major retrospective of visual artist Amalia Mesa-Bains’ oeuvre, which spans more than 45 years.
The San Juan Bautista, California-based artist, curator and cultural critic is considered a pioneer, particularly in her use of traditional ofrendas (altars or offerings to the dead), descansos (roadside resting places) and capillas (home yard shrines) in a contemporary art context.
These idiomatic forms, exemplified in her exhibition by four large-scale installations, are used to connect a lineage of fractured cultural memory and reframe archetypal notions of femininity, mortality and healing.
Free (members, children under 12 and Bexar County residents who visit 4-7 p.m. Tuesday or 10 a.m.-noon Sunday), $12 (students) or $22 (general admission), 10 a.m-7 p.m. Tuesday and Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 200 W. Jones St., (210) 978-8100, samuseum.org.
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This article appears in Nov 13-26, 2024.