(Above: El Copal, by Jean Foss, is one of many colorful artworks on display for Día de los Muertos.)
By Randi Bjornstad
This year’s Día de los Muertos exhibit at the Maude Kerns Art Center will be the 29th time it has hosted the celebration, which definitely qualifies it to be called a community tradition.
The show, which just opened, will be on display through Nov. 4, with a fiesta reception scheduled for Oct. 28 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Eugene artist Susan Jerde often shows her work in the Día de los Muertos show. This year’s piece, a watercolor called Arbor, features a longtime, loving skeleton couple under a flowering arbor with the skeleton forms of various animals they knew and loved in life.
As always, the exhibit features a bevy of artwork by a wide variety of artists, plus seven traditional altars created by community members and groups to entice the spirits of departed family and friends to return to share the festivities with the living. There’s also an annual Day of the Dead Gift Shop.
This year’s fiesta reception also includes a performance by a community group called El Taller de Son Jarocho, featuring music and dance from the Veracruz area of Mexico.
The art show includes work by 19 artists from three U.S. states plus Mexico, expressed in oil and acrylic painting, watercolor, fiber art, photographs, welded metal objects, prints, and mixed-media work.
The Day of the Dead Gift Shop is organized by Suzanne Algara of Buganvilla Imports and includes a wide variety of offerings such as Catrina figures, Day of the Dead dogs, decorative religious altars called nichos, charms, and decorative skulls.
Historically, Día de los Muertos draws its traditions from the ancient harvest rituals of the early indigenous people of Mexico, melding them with the later Roman Catholic rituals of All Souls Day and All Saints Day (Nov. 1 and 2) brought to — and imposed upon — the people of Central America by the Spanish Conquistadors.
The celebration includes cooking of favorite foods, creation of altars to honor the dead, and much music, dancing and gaiety, all designed to entice the spirits of no-longer-living relatives to return to rejoin their relatives and enjoy the festivities.
28th annual Día de los Muertos at the Maude Kerns Art Center
When: Through Nov. 4, 2022
Where: 1910 E. 15th Ave. (corner of of 15th and Villard streets), Eugene
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday during shows
Information: 541-345-1571 or online at mkartcenter.org
Performers will include dancers with Colibri Ballet Folklorico
