Mixpantli: Contemporary Echoes

Mixpantli: Contemporary Echoes showcases the lasting impact of Indigenous creative resilience, connecting the vibrant artistic traditions of the past and the present, of Los Angeles and Mexico. This exhibition features the works of contemporary artists and mapmakers who draw on Indigenous cartographic and artistic histories to challenge dominant narratives about place and belonging. Artworks include Mariana Castillo Deball’s Vista de Ojos (2014), a wooden pavement etched with the oldest map of Mexico City as originally illustrated by a tlacuilo (Indigenous mapmaker); a series of maps by Sandy Rodriguez, who paints with traditional pigments on amate paper to explore the intersection of social memory and contemporary politics; and an interactive map of the Indigenous communities of Los Angeles, produced by Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO).

A companion exhibition to Mixpantli: Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico.

This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Generous support is provided by Daniel Greenberg, Susan Steinhauser and The Greenberg Foundation. Support for LACMA's Art of the Ancient Americas department is provided by the Mellon Foundation and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg.

All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. Major annual support is provided by Meredith and David Kaplan, with generous annual funding from Kevin J. Chen, Louise and Brad Edgerton, Edgerton Foundation, Emily and Teddy Greenspan, Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross, Mary and Daniel James, Justin Lubliner, Jennifer and Mark McCormick, Kelsey Lee Offield, Jen Rubio and Stewart Butterfield, Lenore and Richard Wayne, and Marietta Wu and Thomas Yamamoto.

Image: Sandy Rodriguez, Rainbows, Grizzlies, and Snakes, Oh My! - Conquest to Caging in Los Angeles, 2019, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by AHAN: Studio Forum, 2019 Art Here and Now, © Sandy Rodriguez, photo by J6 Creative

Dec 12, 2021–Jun 12, 2022
BCAM, Level 1

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This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Installation Photography

Installation view of Mixpantli: Contemporary Echoes, December 12, 2021–June 12, 2022, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, © Sandy Rodriguez, © Mariana Castillo Deball, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

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Mixpantli showcases the creative resistance of Indigenous knowledge-keepers following the Spanish invasion of Mexico. In this podcast, LACMA curators talk with contemporary artists, activists, and scholars as they contemplate their legacies in today’s Los Angeles.

This podcast and LACMA's Art of the Ancient Americas department's Ancestral Voices initiative are possible thanks to the generous support of Dan Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser.

Participants (alphabetical): Mariana Castillo Deball, artist Alyce de Carteret, Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow in Art of the Ancient Americas, LACMA Alberto Diaz-Cayeros, Director, Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University Yan Garcia, Nahuatl instructor Diana Magaloni, Deputy Director, Program Director and Dr. Virginia Fields Curator of the Art of the Ancient Americas, and Sazanne D. Booth and David G. Booth Conservation Center Director, LACMA Janet Martinez, Co-Founder and Vice Executive Director, CIELO Sandy Rodriguez, artist Odilia Romero, Co-Founder and Executive Director, CIELO Mariah Tso, artist and GIS Specialist, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, UCLA

On view in Mixpantli: Contemporary Echoes is We Are Here, a StoryMap documenting Los Angeles’s Indigenous diaspora created by Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), an Indigenous women-led organization based in L.A.

Additional content for these exhibitions is available in Nahuatl and Zapotec thanks to the team at CIELO.