Picturing the Familiar is the first large-scale exhibition since 2001 dedicated to the artist, activist, and educator Carmen Lomas Garza. Born in 1948 in Kingsville, TX and coming of age during the Chicano civil rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Garza is a self-described “Chicana narrative artist” and illustrator whose bright, direct imagery captures the beauty and texture of daily life, traditions, and struggles of Chicanx culture. 

Carmen Lomas Garza, Las Peleoneras, 1988. Lithograph on paper. Collection Arizona State University Art Museum (ASUAM), gift of the Chicano Art Print Collection. Courtesy ASUAM, Tempe, AZ. © 1988 Carmen Lomas Garza

Picturing the Familiar extends curator Alana Hernandez’s commitment to developing intersectional and multifaceted interpretations of Latinx art, and offers an expansive review of Garza’s career and includes works on paper, installation, painting, and sculpture. Spanning several decades of the artist’s practice, the survey begins with her early explorations in South Texas during the 1960s and 1970s and concludes with her present-day production in the Bay Area. 

Garza’s artistic production will be shown alongside work by her contemporaries and peers, highlighting shared themes and aesthetics. Picturing the Familiar will include work by peer Texas artists César A. Martínez, José Treviño, and Santa Barraza; Bay Area artists Rupert García, Ralph Maradiaga, and Malaquias Montoya; and Chicana artists Ester Hernandez, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and Patricia Rodriguez. The final section of the exhibition surveys Garza’s public art projects and children’s books. 

This retrospective exemplifies the co-creative, decentralized approach of the Arizona State University Art Museum’s (ASUAM) exhibitions. For her research, Alana Hernandez has convened a community of practice—elders, activists, scholars, and artists—to contribute critical and cultural perspectives throughout the development of the exhibition and related programs.

Carmen Lomas Garza, The Blessing on Wedding Day/La Bendición en el Día de la Boda, 1993. Alkyd on canvas. Collection the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA), purchased with funds from the Josephine A. Stein class of 1927 Fund. Courtesy SCMA, Northampton, MA. © 1993 Carmen Lomas Garza

Carmen Lomas Garza, Tamalada, 1990. Color lithograph. Courtesy the artist. © 1990 Carmen Lomas Garza

Alana Hernandez is Senior Curator at the Arizona State University Art Museum (ASUAM), where she leads the curatorial team and oversees the exhibition program. She has organized exhibitions and artist projects with Carolina Aranibar-Fernández, Sam Frésquez, Luis Rivera Jimenez, Alejandro Macias, Sarah Zapata, Mariana Ramos Ortiz, Estephania González, and José Villalobos, among others. Previously, Hernandez served as Executive Director & Curator at CALA Alliance (Phoenix) from 2021–23. From 2019–21, she was Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) where she organized the museum’s first collection handbook, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego: Handbook of the Collection (2021). From 2017–19, she worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), where she was part of the curatorial teams for Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945 (2021) and Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art (2018). Hernandez received her MA from Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY).

Alex Klein, The Contemporary Austin