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Contemporary Casta Portraiture: : Nuestra “Calidad”
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The Chicana artist Delilah Montoya (b.1955) examines the multicultural life experiences of the Southwest U.S. and the Mexican borderlands through her art. This ethnographic photography project mimics the 18th-century Casta Painting genre from Colonial Mexico but now applying 21st-century genetic DNA testing to map human genetic migration patterns going back 100,000 years. The sixteen familial portraits reference the Enlightenment Era’s pursuit of scientific reason and knowledge to identify and catalog humanity and, in so doing, prompt viewers to consider how the classification of people into racial groups has been an aspect of the Americas for the last 500 years. Through the lens of science, it becomes evident that race, like culture, is a social construct.
Since the 1980s, Montoya has exhibited nationally and internationally. She has taught at several colleges and universities and is currently an emerita professor at the University of Houston. She is a founding member of the multimedia activist group Sin Huellas Artist Collective in Texas, which brings attention to ICE practices and the ongoing tragedies along the border. Montoya was inducted into the first U.S. Latinx Art Forum awardees group in 2021.
“Like the Colonial Casta paintings, the contemporary portraiture represents household units; however, it does not define the members by means of colonial terminology. Instead, the families agree to share the results of their DNA test to demonstrate their deep and regional ancestry.” Companion catalog published by Arte Publico Press –Delilah Montoya
Sponsors:
The Joyce Foundation
Mex-Am Cultural Foundation, Inc.
Prince Charitable Trust
Chicago Park District
Illinois Arts Council