Cultural Ties

Cultural Ties

Cultural Ties is an interdisciplinary exhibition that explores and celebrates Latin American culture while confronting stereotypes. It interweaves the photography of Tina Gutierrez and Andrea Sabugo with mixed media works by Ximena Flores and Rebecca Nava Soto, alongside a selection of short films curated by Mary Leonard, offering a multi-sensory exploration of place, history, and identity. Cultural Ties is part of the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial: The Long View.

Tina Gutierrez’s América series presents large-scale portraits celebrating the diversity and strength of Hispanic women, collaborating with her subjects to reclaim narratives and challenge stereotypes. Similarly, Andrea Sabugo’s paired images draw on editorial fashion photography and traditional dress, hair, and cultural objects to present authentic representations of Mexican and Chicano/a heritage, inviting viewers to reconsider assumptions.

Mixed media works by Nava Soto and Flores add tactile and symbolic dimensions. Nava Soto, inspired by Mesoamerican materials and writing systems, explores contemporary issues through a Xicanx lens, reflecting on her Midwest immigrant upbringing. Flores’s wall boxes, filled with natural materials, evoke life cycles, migration, and enduring ties to homeland, celebrating resilience and cultural continuity.

Mary Leonard’s video series, Sin Vergüenza, features Cuban and Puerto Rican performers, unapologetically confident and often breaking gender norms, blending the political and the sensual.

Together, these works explore identity, heritage, and representation across photography, sculpture, installation, and video. By honoring ancestry, ritual, and lived experience, the exhibition affirms dignity, resilience, and pride, preserving Latin American cultural knowledge and narratives for future generations.

Support for this 2026 FotoFocus Biennial exhibition was provided in part by FotoFocus.

Image: Olivia, Tina Gutierrez, 2023. Digital photograph on metal, 24″w x 30″h.