JUSTIN FAVELA

Capilla de Maíz, a site-specific installation by Justin Favela, transforms the Rubenstein Grand Salon at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery into a fantastical world, with shimmering gold-fringed walls and piñata corncobs that highlight the role of maize in North American visual culture. In Capilla de Maíz, Favela draws together many sources and symbols of maize, frequently called “yellow gold” in the Americas. Maize sustained Indigenous peoples and later European settlers, helping to grow the American agricultural economy. The shimmering gold-fringed walls combine two Mexican art practices, cartonería and the lavish Churrigueresque ornamentation of eighteenth-century Mexican Catholic churches.

Smithsonian American Art Museum & Renwick Gallery