Press release for JuárezX, 2015:

“JuárezX, Dragged Across Borders” explores the U.S. Mexico border as a place in its own right, a dreamland, a laboratory, a labyrinthine maze, whose walls filled with poetic language and images, invite us to reflect and question the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, migrant status, and being. Simultaneously, the exhibit echoes the tantalizing performances of Drag Performers by dissolving our boundaries and inviting us to question the border as a place that allows our fixed identities to bend, stretch, and in the most extreme cases, disappear.
The exhibit features work by artists from Juárez, who have been literally and conceptually dragged across borders. Yorch Otte is an urban artist, muralist, serigrapher and leader of the Art Collective “Rezizte”, presents graffiti art on panel highlighting life on the border. Gabriela Hernandez, an undocumented Seaburry Fellow and New Mexico Highlands University alum, features a series of 6×3 foot banners that represent the struggle of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, (LGBTQ) and undocumented people. Mario Romero juxtapositions topics of the occult, scientific and astronomical with the border. Pulsoans Ans, graffiti artist by night and ANS Art Gallery owner by day, commands spray paint canisters to produce pieces that play with the idea of life and death as they apply to the identities of the margins. Peter Bill, Assistant Professor of New Media at Western New Mexico University, and Héctor Domínguez Ruvalcaba, Associate Professor of Queer & Border Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, project guerrilla video texts onto the streets of Ciudad Juarez. Last minute addition Sarita Corderito adds witty political commentary and tasty painting/collage chops to the mix.
“JuárezX, Dragged Across Borders” opens October 16th at the McCray Gallery and will remain open to the public until November 9th. Gabriela Hernandez will lead her Jotería Workshop from 3-5pm on October 16th at the McCray Gallery as part of GLAM Week. There will be a reception for the artists October 16th from 5:30–7:30, there will be a free food, refreshments, and music following a brief lecture from Professor Hector Dominguez Ruvalcaba. The exhibit is hosted at the Francis McCray Gallery at WNMU campus in Silver City, NM. This transnational, transcultural and transient exhibition is sponsored by TheCenter ForGender Equity, WNMU’s Latin American and Latino Studies Program (LALS), WNMU Cultural Affairs, andWNMU Expressive Arts.