Mexican artists make debut with ¡Ayñ! Arte exhibition in Salt Shed

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¡Ayñ! Arte is an art exhibition celebrating Mexican contemporary art through five Guadalajara-based artists and creatives.

Housed at the iconic Salt Shed, formerly the Morton Salt warehouse, Arte features work from Guadalajara-based artists and creatives Rubén Alvarez, Rocca Luis César, La Puga María, Alex Siordia, and Ricardo Luevanos.

Arte’s layout at the Salt Shed combines the beautiful hardwood floors, open space and factory-scaled walls with the colorful Mexican-themed displays.

Agencia Sí Sí Sí, who put together the exhibition, was created by a multifaceted trio of Chicago changemakers: Lucy Angel is the founder of production company Luce Ends, floral company Flores Campo Santo, and co-founder of the non-profit Grocery Run Club. Miguel Cervantes is a designer and founder of the prominent rising stable in Little Village, Comercio Popular. Dom Cordilla is a prop stylist and designer who is also the creative director at Comercio Popular.

“The mission of Agencia Sí Sí Sí is to amplify the Latino voice through experiences. For us, it’s leveraging all of these skill sets that we have between the three of us to create a platform for people to showcase their work and talents from a very design and logistical perspective,” said Angel on the collaboration efforts in bringing this plan to life.

Three of the five artists and creatives were in attendance on the first opening weekend of Arte. “There are many ways to do things. This is our way. That’s how we want to present our culture to Chicago and to the rest of the world,” Angel said about the reception they received.

Rubén Alvarez uses Spanish words and phrases within his art as a way to communicate with his audience. He said the Spanish language is the root of many families in the U.S. and the language is used in very intimate situations with people who they are close with.

“I saw people having that reaction to my art,” Alvarez explained. “Taking pictures and reading what was created on the art. In Chicago, there is a really powerful sense of Latino community. Latino people embrace very quickly what speaks to their soul.”

Siordia’s pieces celebrate “Sobremesa,” the moments after dinner conversations that are critical to the Latino culture. “The protagonist or main character of the dinner is the food. But I always thought that it’s really the person who is inside the kitchen, the exhausted worker. That’s what the flowers are for.”

Jesus J. Montero

Siordia pays homage to the cooking abuelas within the Latino community with a hanging mandil lined with a veil of flowers that trail across the space. “A table is like an altar, life is filled with rituals. That’s what I’m questioning and asking [people] to take a look at,” Siordia said.

Using two large adjacent rooms, each artist is divided into different parts of the space. “Everything works so complementarily with each other,” Cordilla said on crafting the space. He combines the rustic feel and white space in Salt Shed with Mexican elements.

“That’s kind of the whole point of us being here at the Salt Shed, which is to tell a story, not only about Chicago and the people that have built the city, but also between us and the other artists that are coming here from Guadalajara to showcase their art and stories, too,” Cordilla said about the historical location.

The show is the first reflection of Sí Sí Sí’s effort to bridge Mexico to Chicago through art.

“My work is all about dreams,” said Luevanos, sharing that he’s a dreamer through his art. “I’m always thinking in my dreams, daydreaming, working hard for them. I always talk a lot about them. Everything is very dreamlike. I try to express that with my art.”

This marks the first time the artists make their Chicago debut with their work.

“I like the idea of reaching out and bringing a message to Latino people here and being able to have that kind of connection. I do it from the depths of my heart and that is what I want to convey, it’s very special when someone sees it and you manage to touch them when they see your work,” he said.

The inaugural gallery is a needed addition to Chicago’s art community, they said, created out of passion and necessity. Arte celebrates the Mexican influence in the city.

“There are different ways to celebrate being Mexican,” said Cervantes on the significance of having found a space for the art. “The five people that are here each have a different way of showing it, but the heritage behind it connects us.”

Cervantes urged patrons when visiting Arte to feel inspired to celebrate their own Latino heritage in the creative world. “You can still be part of the creative world in some capacity. It doesn’t always have to be as an artist, but for me, representing or connecting with those artists, that’s what matters and what gets me excited.”

The Arte exhibition is free and open to the public through Sunday, Oct. 2 from 10a.m. - 5p.m.