On Feb. 26, the ASNMSU Center for the Arts gathered to find answers to one seemingly simple question: why shouldn’t you make art in your kitchen?
The question has a few answers, but keynote speaker Celia Álvarez Muñoz came prepared to not only provide answers of her own but to also guide listeners on how to craft their respective answers.
Muñoz is a renowned artist and photographer who draws from her experiences growing up near the US-Mexico border, using mixed media to make art that ranges from the size of a book to the filling of entire rooms.
So, why shouldn’t you make art in your kitchen?
“Let’s start by thinking big,” Muñoz began.
Over the course of the next hour, Muñoz talked through her life as an artist, aided by slides displaying her work that slowly becoming more relevant. Beginning with recent work and then working through her earliest pieces, Muñoz talked through her career as her pieces got larger.
Initially beginning with art books and then venturing into public and conceptual art, Muñoz’s projects have now grown to be displayed in locations across the country, including the Devasthali Hall University Art Museum.
“She has cultivated an art practice filled with playful storytelling, puns, and wordplay, all of which regular address the experiences of living in the physical, psychological, and political border zone,” Eva Gabriella Flynn, Outreach Coordinator of the University Art Museum said.
While a life in the borderlands influences much of Muñoz’s work, she made it clear that it is not the only thing that has made her or anyone a successful artist. As she progressed through her career stages, she began to collaborate with more artists, and this collaboration is part of the reason she expanded into large-scale works.
“I chose conceptual art where ideas are the drivers to explain and provoke thinking,” Muñoz said, and went on to explain how her early life and later collaborations influence her art.
This element of collaboration stuck with listeners, many of which agreed that it is another answer to the question of why you should not make art in your kitchen.
“It’s a really interesting application of her artistic ideas and working with the world and the people around her to bring those artistic ideas into reality even when she doesn’t have the skills, but she knows someone who does and she has the interpersonal skills to be able to create those things,” said sophomore Sasha Meston-Ward.
As the talk concluded with final words from Muñoz encouraging creativity, research, and collaboration, viewers moved to Devasthali Hall for the reception. During the reception, attendees were encouraged to peruse Muñoz’s exhibit.
The event kicked off the 2024 Research and Creativity Week hosted by the University and marked the end of Muñoz’s display at the museum. Her display, Breaking the Binding, officially closed on March 2, but those interested in seeing her work can find it on display at museums throughout the Southwest.
