Staniar Gallery Presents ‘Homeward Bound’ The exhibit, with works by Maria Cristina Tavera, will be on display Nov. 8-Dec. 3.

By Erica Turman
November 3, 2021

Washington and Lee University’s Staniar Gallery presents “Homeward Bound,” a solo exhibition of works by Minneapolis-based artist Maria Cristina Tavera. The show will feature prints and the premiere of a video. The exhibit will open on Nov. 8, and the works will be on display through Dec. 3, with a curator’s talk on Nov. 16 at 5:30 p.m. in Wilson Concert Hall. The event will be followed by a reception in Lykes Atrium, adjacent to the hall.

The exhibition and related events are free and open to the public. All attendees are expected to be masked indoors in compliance with the university’s COVID-19 guidelines.

In her work, Tavera examines cultural signifiers regarding constructions of race, ethnicity, gender, and national and cultural identities. Tavera creates art using various media, and she appropriates visual imagery from Latin American legends, commercial packaging, the media, politics, comics, maps, currency, graffiti and games. In her work, she plays with bilingual shifts in meaning to create art that is often humorous. Tavera is a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States, and she also confronts the dark legacy and pervasive effects of colonialism and racism in the Americas.

Tavera has exhibited nationally and internationally and has received multiple fellowships and grants, including a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship and Archibald Bush Leadership Fellowship.

As an independent curator, Tavera also prepared the international exhibition “Sus Voces: Women Printmakers in Mexico” at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minnesota, and she was a co-curator for “American Art: It’s Complicated” at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Her writings have been published by the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and include a book titled “Mexican Pulp Art.”

The Staniar Gallery is located on the second floor of Wilson Hall in Washington and Lee University’s Lenfest Center for the Arts. For more information, please call 540-458-8861.