The Denver Art Museum's panel on Mexican Modernism provided an intricate lens into three panelists, Pablo Helguera, Damian Ortega, and Alma Lopez. The moderators, of course to add to the individual artists' storytelling, added that Mexican Modernism is both instructive and politically engaged. Additionally, for the flow of the event, they split up the topics of discussion into three main categories: 1. Public Art as Activism, 2. Layered Identities, and 3. Reclamation and Appropriation. I enjoyed hearing each of the artists' back stories and sources of inspiration, taking it all back to express the motives behind their present, past, and possible future works. Everything was presented beautifully chronologically, and I'd like to start with my admiration of Pablo Helguera and his love for muralism and performance art, which led to his paying homage to the impact of Mexican telenovelas globally, specifically in Eastern Europe. I also appreciated when understanding his layered identities, especially as a white Mexican man, he used theatrics to create art, imagining himself with different worldviews and experiences to inform his art. Damian Ortega also paid homage to various political cartoons and even store front advertisements that you''d see in front of many Mexican owned stores, and just truly spotlighted the ways that art manifests in the least "likely" of places.
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