These colorful paintings (oil on metal) come from the 500-year-old tradition of votive paintings, ex-vos or retablos.
They are traditionally commissioned in trade for services, to tell the miraculous tale and give thanks to the
intervening saint for answered prayers, miracles. They depict lifeís near-tragic stories and the realities of survival,
with humor, honesty and charm. In the modern day Mexico these thwarted mishaps might include drug or
alcohol abuse, bus accidents, drunken debauchery, collapsing scaffolding, street brawls, dog bites, infidelity
and jealousies. The works here blend traditional Mexican popular art with contemporary themes
like homosexuality, emigration, and lost love and urban violence.
