By MJ Kelly and Oscar Olivos

Carminia Magaña was born in Mexico City on October 28, 1939, to a family of Yucatecan origin; was one of three children, although her brother died as a child. Her father, a lawyer, was secretary in the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. Her pedagogue mother was a precursor to the preschool education commissioned by President Adolfo López Mateos.  She received all her education at the American School and obtained a degree in Art History at the University of the Americas.  Her command of English and French, and ease in public relations, allowed her husband, who was an attache official for Pemex, to live and entertain in different cities, such as The Hague, Paris and New York.  Continue reading Carminia Magaña →

By Deborah Van Hoewyk

If you had been lucky enough to be museum hopping in Mexico City a while back (2011), you would have encountered a two-museum exhibit that marked the rebirth of an ancient Mexican art.  Alas: El vuelo de las imágenes del mundo indigena (Wings:  The flight of images from the indigenous world) took place at the famous National Museum of Anthropology and History and the somewhat less visited National Museum of Art (Museo Nacional de Arte, now known as MUNAL – see article elsewhere in this issue).  The exhibit was followed in 2016 by a book of 33 essays exploring the creative interaction between the new and old worlds, as seen in … FEATHERS (Images Take Flight:  Feather Art in Mexico and Europe, 1400 – 1700).  Continue reading From Ancient Culture to Antique Kitsch: Mexican Feather Art →

By Kary Vannice

On September 7, 2019, two years after an 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern Mexico, a community action group in Huatulco, Colectivo Tilcoatle, honored those affected with a photography exhibition entitled Memoria de Luz (Memory of Light).  Continue reading Memoria de Luz →