Celia Alvarez Munoz

In Celia Alvarez Muñoz, Roberto Tejada analyzes Celia Alvarez Munoz’s artworks that mostly revolve around the themes of Catholic and Mexican-Americans near Mexico border. Celia started her art journey during her Master of Fine Arts degree at North Texas State University in Denton. As a Chicana artist, she expresses her identity and made art with a humorous and honest language. Also, her artworks tend to create innuendos that let the viewers interpret their own meaning and intention behind each of her images and installations.

In 1991, Celia installed a mixed media called Abriendo Tiendo (Breaking Ground). It is a wooden structure over a pool at the courtyard of Dallas Museum of art. This structure consists of eight vertical timbre beams that forms a bare-boned hut-like shape. On the top of the structure is a crisscross of two red neon light that reflects a glowing X on the water surface. During the installation, Celia was researching on the Hohokam and Mogollan Indians. Tejada explained that the structure was shaped like skeletal homes in Mogollan, and Celia wanted to show the collusion between industrial façade and the expansion of culture in United States (11). Here, she used a technique that was inspired by her dream as a member in a marching band, in which she felt out of step. They are demonstrations that knowingly miss or minimize, like minimalism. Just like her most of her artworks’ theme, Abriendo Tiendo also gives an ambiguous reflection on art history between Mexico and US.