2nd draft

 Exhibition Review: Beatriz Cortez x rafa esparza: Earth and Cosmos at the Americas Society

Earth and Cosmos at the Americas Society brings together the works of Beatriz Cortez and rafa esparza, exploring \themes of migration,memory, and the movement of ancient knowledge across space and time.The exhibition merges ancient traditions with contemporary artistic practices, focusing on the transference ofcultural artifacts and their impact on modern identities.

One of the key pieces, esparza’s Hyperspace: -100km + (2025), is a sculpture made from basalt and adobe,referencing the Olmec colossal heads and the journey of magma from the Earth’s crust to the surface in itsuse of basalt. The combination of raw materials and esparza’s family's connections to adobe-makinginfuses the piece with a deep connection to his ancestral land of Durango, Mexico.

Cortez’s Cabeza de Jaguar (Monumento #47) (2022) and Gift of the Artist to the Ancient Object Labeledas Human Head Emerging from Monster Jaws (2023) stand in contrast to Esparza’s earthy,grounded sculpture through their use of sharp, industrial steel. The jagged forms show the violence andfragmentation caused by colonial looting and displacement of Indigenous artifacts. 

While the exhibition succeeds in its use of materials and grounding abstract themes in tangible forms, itoccasionally falls short in offering new insights about displacement and cultural preservation. The thematicfocus on migration, memory, and colonial legacies, although important, feels somewhat familiar and expectedgiven how frequently these subjects appear in contemporary art. For example, the use of 3-D printed replicasof artifacts, while visually compelling, does not offer a fresh perspective on cultural heritage or its complexities.

Danka Latorre, Current Season 472-02