Art Exhibitions at UTD to Challenge Stereotypes During Month-Long Latino Cultural Celebration

RICHARDSON, Texas (Aug. 27, 2003) – The
University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) will present three art exhibitions as part of a month-long celebration
of Latino heritage being held in North Texas in conjunction with the Sept. 16 opening of the Dallas
Latino Cultural Center at 2600 Live Oak St.

The primary exhibition, entitled Speedy Gonzalez
is German: Playing with Stereotypes, will be shown in the Main Gallery of the Visual Arts
Building on campus and will be complemented by a photography exhibition, Mexico by Casilda
Buckley, in the Mezzanine Gallery, and a mixed-media exhibition, The Banquet: pigeon, snake,
and pig by Ph.D. student Reynaldo Thompson, in the Green Center commons.

Speedy Gonzalez is German: Playing with Stereotypes and Mexico will
run from Aug. 29 to Sept. 27, and The Banquet: pigeon, snake, and pig will run Sept. 15
through Oct. 25. A reception for all three exhibitions will be held in the Main Gallery of the Visual
Arts Building on Friday, Sept. 19, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Prompted by the upcoming opening of the Latino Cultural
Center in Dallas, UTD art history Professor Richard Brettell begin working with curator Alejandro
Pintado and the Mexican government to bring an exciting new exhibition of contemporary Mexican art, Speedy
Gonzalez is German: Playing with Stereotypes, which was being shown in England at the time,
to the United States. This exhibition presents the works of 16 contemporary Mexican artists — Carlos
Amorales, Artemio, Erick Beltrán, Ximena Cuevas, Gabriel de la Mora, Mario de Vega, Sylvia
Gruner, Pablo Helguera, Pablo León de la Barra, Beatriz Lopez, Richard Moszka, Sebatián
Ramirez, Rubén Ortiz-Torres, Alejandro Pintado, Diego Toledo and Rodrigo Tovar — all of whom
address notions of what is understood as Mexican in their work by playing with clichés and
stereotypes.

“Speedy Gonzalez is German is an opportunity
to develop and debate the question, suppositions, and rules associated with the concepts of Mexico
and Mexican and to create a structure which questions both Mexicans’ own notion of identity and the
process whereby Western and ‘first-world’ cultures digest and codify concepts of foreignness, strangeness
and the ‘other,'” said Pintado. “This exhibition will present and contextualize a show
of Mexican contemporary art that will invite both artists and spectators to move beyond the expected.”

Buckley was born in Karachi, Pakistan, the daughter
of a Spanish ambassador and has had a lifelong interest in photography with a focus towards an abstraction
of the subject, making the forms and composition dominate.

“This particular exhibition for UTD is more in
relation to the Speedy Gonzalez subject matter,” she said. “How does one look
at a world they know little of and only have images of it through the media or their relatively small
interactive world — those Mexicans who migrate and work for them. In my three years of living in
Mexico City, myself being a foreigner there, my images of Mexico and things Mexican have also been
shaken. Although these photographs do not cover at all the vast richness of the culture and its people;
it is a small taste of the world that has impacted me. Mexico is incredibly stimulating visually.
For a photographer, it is a world of constant shots — the architecture, nature and the people are
of such diversity and contrast that it is a real treat to the eyes.”

Thompson’s The Banquet: pigeon, snake, and pig explores
the dark side of humans and is in partial fulfillment of his Ph.D. degree. War, materialistic ambition,
repression and human vices are the main concerns of the artist. Thompson is a Mexican artist and
architect who obtained his bachelor’s degree in his native country and has studied in Europe.

All UTD art exhibitions are free and open to the public.
The Visual Arts Building is open Mondays to Fridays from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on Saturdays from
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is closed on Sundays. The Green Center commons is open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
weekdays and is not open on weekends.

For information about the many musical, arts, theatre,
dance and other performances and exhibitions held throughout the year at UTD, please call 972-UTD-ARTS
(972-883-2787), e-mail utdarts@utdallas.edu or visit the
School of Arts and Humanities’ web site at www.utdallas.edu/ah.
Persons with disabilities needing special accommodations may call 972-883-2982, Texas Relay Operator
1-800-RELAYVV.

About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart
of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor,
enrolls more than 13,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront
of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment
of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please
visit the university’s Web site at http://www.utdallas.edu.