Minerva Cuevas. Fine Lands

Minerva Cuevas. Fine Lands
18.05.2018 - 02.09.2018

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) presents Fine Lands, the first solo US museum presentation of the work of Minerva Cuevas (b. 1975, Mexico City). This immersive mural fills both the walls and the ceiling of the Museum’s main thoroughfare. Cuevas is a socially engaged conceptual artist who responds to political events in a variety of media. In past works, she has adopted the language of corporate branding and advertising campaigns; recently, she has turned to graphic imagery borrowed from comic books to create sweeping tableaux of both real and imagined histories. As Fine Lands demonstrates, Cuevas seeks to expose the real human and ecological costs of doing business in the global economy.

Fine Lands engages directly with the history of Dallas. While serving as a visiting artist at Southern Methodist University, Cuevas visited Fair Park, home of the Texas State Fair and site of not only fairground entertainment but also Art Deco pavilions that celebrate local industry and history. Inspired by this imagery, she created a panorama of the city told from the perspective of indigenous wildlife. Merging industrial and natural landscapes, the work encompasses themes as diverse as the militarization of civilian culture, and air and water pollution caused by energy production. In this way, Cuevas explores how industry has shaped both the environment and the social imaginary of Texas. The work points toward the looming future, which may be uncertain, but is ours to impact.

On view through September 3, 2018, Fine Lands is curated by the DMA’s Nancy and Tim Hanley Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Anna Katherine Brodbeck.

This presentation is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art. Generous support provided by TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund and the Contemporary Art Initiative.