La Frontera

La Frontera explores the U.S.–Mexico border and what it represents as a physical reality, geopolitical construction, and condition of being. Working in contemporary jewelry, the artists included present stories of geography, identity, and desire, creating profound relationships between concept and the implied wearer.

First mounted in 2013, the original La Frontera exhibition considered the border as the physical place where complex relationships between Mexico and the U.S. are most visible. Re-curated on its tenth anniversary, La Frontera brings together many artists from its first iteration with artists from the borderlands, deepening the ways in which the exhibition includes the lived experiences of transfronterizxs.

The new La Frontera also occupies the space that it addresses for the first time. Presented on both sides of the border, the exhibition traverses El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, in collaboration with the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. In 2024, the exhibition will travel to San Diego and Tijuana, in collaboration with the Mingei International Museum and the Centro Cultural Tijuana. Speaking to the border instead of about it, La Frontera signals the deep connection between border life and the body: here, you will find stories that are worn.