Curatorial Text by Elena Ortiz de Arenas Entering an exhibition is not merely crossing a door: it is stepping through the threshold of the everyday to immerse oneself in a symbolic territory,where the sensory and the spiritual become intertwined. The quiet atmosphere that reigns in an art space—that almost reverent stillness—invites contemplation, wonder, and respect.There, the spirit encounters elevated ideas that emerge from the intimate imagination of the artist,manifestin

María Lightowler - Agosto 2025 In Sagrado Pop , artist María Mercedes Sánchez , a native of Bucaramanga, takes us on a journey that merges the popular with the sacred, revealing a sense of everyday spirituality that permeates every aspect of her work. The exhibition presents a selection of works offering a deep look into her evolving artistic practice—both conceptually and materially. Through a rich and complex weaving of religious iconography and pop culture, Sánchez constru

POETICS OF THE SACRED-PROFANE: ETHNOGRAPHIES OF DESIRE IN THE INTERSTICES OF THE EVERYDAY María Lightowler Curatorship – April 2025 At the intersection of visual ethnography and interdisciplinary artistic practice, María Mercedes Sánchez’s work constructs an affective archive of devotion rituals that shape the Latin American imagination. The artist operates as a critical archaeologist of popular mythologies—those that hybridize religious iconography with the fetishes of mass

“… I would be truly delighted if we could end the long-standing distinction between objects that elicit certain responses due to their supposed ‘religious’ or ‘magical’ powers and those deemed to have purely ‘aesthetic’ functions.” The Power of Images , David Freedberg, 1989 The latest artistic proposal by María Mercedes Sánchez presents a unique pastiche composed of collections of images articulated through various formats, including digital collages, dioramas, and ritual in

By Franklin Aguirre  ( Artist, Museum Professional, and Independent Curator )  To make sense of life, or at least to provide a temporary explanation for its mysteries, humanity has always relied on votive images. These images, ritualized and contextualized over the centuries, have given rise to formal belief systems commonly known as religions. Throughout history, myths and rituals have played a fundamental role in the intellectual evolution of humanity and in the way it inte

By Víctor Manuel Rodríguez-Sarmiento (curator) The recurrence of popular religious imagery in Latin American artistic practices is...