MFA Exhibition with Cynthia Evans

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George Caleb Bingham Gallery

Descanso
Cynthia Evans MFA Exhibition

Exhibition Dates: March 7 - March 17, 2022
In-person Reception: Thursday, March 10th, 5:30-7pm
Gallery Talk: Thursday, March 10th at 6pm

Descanso is a multi-sensory installation that explores death, the loss of self, and rebirth. Descanso translates to “eternal rest”, “relief”, as well as “a place of rest” which is why it has become a term used for the memorial markers along highways in the southwest region of the US as well as in Mexico and Latin America. Evoking funerary traditions combined with contemporary museum display, the artist has created a memorial site for their own psychological death. Ethereal votive offerings made from broken glass vessels, contained by cast paper, become the embodiment of compartmentalization from experiencing ego death over time. Pairing the material with the immaterial this exhibition depicts the internal landscape physically through the representation of life and death cycles. 

Cynthia Evans is an interdisciplinary artist from El Paso, Texas. She explores identity, memory, and loss in her work through the use of abject materials and abstracting the body.  Evans received her BFA in Printmaking and Metalsmithing from the University of Texas in El Paso and is currently completing her MFA in Fibers at the University of Missouri focusing on sculptural papermaking. 

Evans has shown her works nationally at Dream Machine for New York Jewelry Week, Charles W. and Norma C. Carroll Gallery in Huntington WV, Varsity Art in Saint Louis MO, McNeese University in Lake Charles LA, and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago IL. She has shown virtually with Nefarious Contemporary as well as published in Surface Design Association’s international publication in the fall of 2021 for receiving an outstanding student award. While in El Paso, Evans was a teaching artist for the El Paso Museum of Art for over 4 years, the promotions manager for the El Paso Art Association for a year and was a co-creator and manager of an artist run gallery called Honeyguide Gallery for 3 years.