Experience Luis Alvaro Sahagún Nuño’s solo exhibition in Ogden, Utah. On view through April 21, 2024.
Healing Palette of Mystical Mestizaje
on view through April 21, 2024
Ogden Contemporary Arts, Ogden, Utah
Healing, at its best, seeks first to identify the sources behind the ailment or trauma, and then to intervene, diminishing further harm providing an opportunity for revival.
Luis Álvaro Sahagún Nuño is a practitioner of curanderismo, a traditional Indigenous Mexican healing practice that incorporates both physical and spiritual approaches. The Healing Palette of Mystical Mestizaje, embodies this spirit and approach to his art, addressing underlying issues impacting marginalized communities, like historical and contemporary injustices of colonization, erasure, and oppression.
Drawing inspiration from Indigenous traditions and contemporary art practices, Sahagún Nuño reclaims the familiar, using it as a starting point for conversations and healing processes. For instance, he incorporates a Mexican cobija (San Marcos blanket), emblematic of Mexican culture, as both object and concept—comforting, healing, and protective—in his mobile botánica studio. The cobija’s vibrant colors and comforting print, in this case of the Virgen de Guadalupe, can be traced to Indigenous weaving traditions, carrying symbolic meaning and spiritual significance to Indigenous cultures. Central to the mobile botánica studio, the cobija also stands as a symbol of personal histories, cultural resistance, and colonial disruption, while its familiarity serves as a starting point to welcome conversations and the process of healing.
In order to facilitate the healing process, disrupt trauma, and highlight injustices, Sahagún Nuño has also created limpia (or spiritual cleansing) portraits of Ogden community members. It is through this combined act of art-making and spiritual work that he facilitates a path for healing and cultural and spiritual reclamation.
—curatorial statement by María del Mar González-González
ogdencontemporaryarts.org
instagram / facebook
sponsored by
