The casual visitor to Ogden Contemporary Art Center’s current exhibit—the passerby or art aficionado who stops in on any given weekday—will miss an important aspect of Luis Álvaro Sahagún Nuño’s work. It’s the lived experience, the performative aspect—the various healing ceremonies that undergrid the artist’s practice and were part of his two-month residency in Ogden. What remains, however static, is still a visually-engaging exhibition full of cultural markers of blended identity.

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Sahagún Nuño’s, by his own definition, is a former undocumented immigrant. The North Carolina-based artist was raised in Chicago, where he worked in construction and then design before pursuing a path as a fine artist—a career which has garnered him awards and invitations to several residencies across the country.

He is also a practitioner of curandismo, a traditional Latin American healing practice that integrates indigenous, Spanish and African influences, and is primarily found in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Through the use of natural remedies, such as herbs, and spiritual rituals including prayers and limpias (spiritual cleansings), curandismo attempts to address physical, spiritual and emotional imbalances. Sahagún Nuño’s grandfather was a curandero, a practitioner who is generally a respected member of the community, and Sahagún Nuño incorporates the practice into his work. As such he joins a growing number of contemporary artists who present themselves as much as a shaman or healer as an aesthetician.

Sahagún Nuño’s aesthetic in Healing Palette of Mystical Mestizaje is a form of maximalism that couldn’t be further from the minimalist, all-gray design fetish that has dominated much of suburban U.S. in the past decade. It is colorful and overloaded, kitsch even (if one can use that loaded term), mixing hand-drawn and crafted elements with mass-produced items from popular culture. In a video produced for OCA, the artist speaks of being inspired by the decor of his grandmother’s house.

The west wall of OCA is dominated by a large animal figure stitched together from various textiles. It might appear dragon-like to some eyes, but more likely is inspired by the two-headed serpent that is an important figure in Mexica mythology—a symbol of duality and the convergence of opposite forces and represents the concept of balance and the unification of complementary elements. There’s a sense of foreboding, of bad omen associated with the serpent, as one foot rests in the underworld and the other in this world, but it is also a symbol of rebirth. In Sahagún Nuño’s version, indigenous and Catholic cultural markers, taken from popular rug motifs, are woven throughout—the Christ baby and the Virgin of Guadalupe sharing space with the Mexica Eagle Warrior.

A path of smeared paint and footsteps lead from this work to two related works on the opposite end of the gallery. The first weaves together the fabric of cultural identity and spiritual belief in a form reminiscent of the familiar roadside vendor stands scattered throughout Latin America. Dominating this structure is an altar dedicated to The Virgin of Guadalupe, a syncretic symbol of Mexican identity that blends Coatlicue, the virgin mother goddess of Mesoamerica, with the Catholic Virgin Mary. Draped in vibrant textiles and adorned with an array of feathers, rocks, crystals, and a menagerie of animal figurines, the altar projects a mystic aura. Unlike the typical stands offering tacos or fruit juices, the installation presents elements of the artist’s own spiritual practice. One arm of the stand extends to reveal a medicine wheel, a sacred symbol that offers spiritual healing and guidance, while the other proffers remedies like packets of myrrh—traditionally used for its purifying and holy scent—and, in a jar labeled “remedio para susto,” a potion designed to cure fright.

The final work in the exhibit returns to mass-produced blankets as a canvas, with hand-drawn portraits integrated into the design. The blankets themselves are typical of those found in many Mexican homes—often vibrant, with depictions of animals, religious figures, or natural elements. On the left, there’s a blanket with a tiger, a symbol of strength and energy and a reference to the curandismo concept of spirit animals. On the right, another blanket celebrates various aspects of Mexican culture and history: an Aztec warrior, the Virgin of Guadalupe, Pancho Villa. The phrase “Alivio y Asilo” (Relief and Asylum), prominently displayed in green neon, bridges the two sections of blankets and suggests themes of refuge and healing. Hung across the blankets are five portraits, executed in charcoal and encased with frames embedded with feathers, herbs, seashells and crystals. These hand-drawn images are part of the “cleansings” the artist performed as part of his residency and provide a grounding contrast to the mass-produced blankets.

The blankets Sahagún Nuño uses as material throughout the exhibition are unabashedly popular imagery—in terms of a U.S. equivalent, one might think of a blanket featuring an image of the flowing stars and stripes behind a fierce bald eagle. While it might be difficult to imagine the latter being embraced sincerely in an art-world setting, Sahagún Nuño does the equivalent for his culture at Ogden Contemporary Arts. The materials he uses are markers of Mexican culture and a specific class of Mexican culture, one that the artist embraces, celebrates and transforms. Sahagún Nuño’s approach transcends simple national symbols, weaving complex threads of personal and collective memory into each piece. By doing so, he invites viewers into a deeper dialogue about identity, migration, and spirituality, reflecting broader trends in contemporary art where personal stories catalyze public conversations. Healing Palette of Mystical Mestizaje artfully merges his vibrant cultural heritage and infuses it with his spiritual practices in a visually-stimulating way.

Healing Palette of Mystical Mestizaje, Ogden Contemporary Arts, Ogden, through Apr. 21

All images courtesy the author

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.