Unbreakable

About the Exhibit

UPDATE 3.4.24: Please note, due to gallery construction, some of the works originally featured in this presentation are no longer on view. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Unbreakable presents artworks with an emphasis on Latina and Chicana artists and their stories of survival and resilience. Selected from the landmark Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia Collection, which the Blanton recently acquired, these works explore a major theme shaping the couple’s distinctive collecting practice: art with a feminist framework. Created with various techniques since the 1970s, these works of art represent the act of surviving difficult or violent realities, ranging from immigration and poverty to misogyny and genocide. Artists make figures visible in society who have been overlooked or exploited over time, championing matriarchs, community members, malcriadas [bad-mannered girls], domestic workers, and the rebellious “other.” The artists in Unbreakable present the ways in which women and gender nonconforming people navigate, surpass, and dismiss societal boundaries, advocating the belief that a feminist future is possible. 

Curated by Claudia Zapata, Associate Curator, Latino Art, Blanton Museum of Art.

Image Gallery

Feature Image Credit

Juana Alicia, Sobreviviente [Survivor], 1990, Screenprint, Sheet: 32 1/4 × 26 1/8 in. (81.9 × 66.4 cm), Image: 29 5/16 × 24 in. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of Gilberto Cárdenas, 2017.273