Exodus to the “Promised Land:” Of the Devil and Other Monsters in Juan de Dios Mora’s Artworks

• Main Authors: Adriana Miramontes Olivas, Juan de Dios Mora, Deborah Caplow
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University Library System, University of Pittsburgh 2017-11-01
• Series: Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture
• Subjects: printmaking, Mexico, immigration
• Online Access: https://contemporaneity.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/contemporaneity/article/view/222

Juan de Dios Mora is a printmaker and a senior lecturer at The University of Texas at San Antonio, where he began teaching painting, drawing, and printmaking in 2010. Mora is a prolific artist whose prints have been published in numerous venues including the catalogs New Arte Nuevo: San Antonio 2010 and New Art/Arte Nuevo San Antonio 2012. In 2017, his work was exhibited at several venues, including the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas in Juan Mora: Culture Clash (June 8–August 13, 2017) and at The Cole Art Center, Reavley Gallery in Nacogdoches, Texas, in Juan de Dios Mora (organized by the Art Department at the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art, January 26–March 10, 2017). In 2016, Mora participated in the group show Los de Abajo: Garbage as an Artistic Source (From the Bottom: Garbage as an Artistic Source) at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio (June 10–July 29, 2016). Mora also curates the show Print It Up, which he organizes in the downtown area of San Antonio, thereby granting unprecedented exposure to numerous artists. For this exhibition, Mora mentors both students and alumni, guiding them through the exhibition process—from how to create a portfolio, frame and install artworks, to contracting with gallery owners, and selling artworks to the public. Adriana Miramontes Olivas is a doctoral student in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. She earned her BA at the University of Texas at El Paso and her MA at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research is in modern and contemporary global art with a focus on Latin America, gender studies, sexuality, and national identity. Dr. Deborah Caplow is an art historian and curator, and the author of a book about the Mexican printmaker, Leopoldo Méndez (Leopoldo Méndez: Revolutionary Art and the Mexican Print, University of Texas Press). She teaches art history at the University of Washington, Bothell. Areas of scholarship include twentieth-century Mexican art, the intersections between art and politics, and the history of photography. Currently, she is researching contemporary printmaking in Oaxaca, Mexico.