Return to Nature Proposed in Guest Exhibition in WT’s Fitz Formal Art Gallery

Copy by Chip Chandler, 806-651-2124, cchandler@wtamu.edu

CANYON, Texas — An imaginative new art exhibition featuring four Mexican artists at West Texas A&M University will offer a respite from the daily chaos of the world.

“A Mountain of My Making,” curated by Leslie Moody Castro, will open March 27 and remain on view through May 3 in the Dord Fitz Formal Gallery in Mary Moody Northen Hall. An opening reception will begin at 5 p.m. March 27.

Moody Castro, an itinerant curator based in Mexico City and Austin, was guest editor of Glasstire, the oldest online-only art magazine in the country, from 2022 to 2024. She also manages Atrevesarte, a tour company highlighting art in Mexico.

“ ‘A Mountain of My Making’ takes video work by four artists living and working in Mexico City to propose the building of a fictitious home, or haven,” Moody Castro wrote in a curator’s statement. “Since the 2020 pandemic, the world has changed dramatically, and the works in this project reflect that, starting with the rising death tolls in the city due to the COVID-19, the feminist movement that drastically shifted perspectives on monuments, the return to nature after a period of isolation, and the proposition of fictitious ecosystems can allow for new creation of life.”

Participating artists include Virginia Colwell, Julieta Gil, Miguel Angel Salazar and Carlos Ivan Hernandez.

“Mexico City is the largest city in North America, and one of the most important art centers in the world,” said Jon Revett, art program director and Doris Alexander Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts. “Its cultural impact reverberates throughout our region, and allowing Moody Castro to curate work from this important city shows our students a world beyond the Texas Panhandle. By exposing our students and the larger Panhandle community to contemporary artwork from Mexico illustrates new and unexpected viewpoints so they can find connections within our own culture.”

Fitz Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and by appointment Fridays and Saturdays. Email jrevett@wtamu.edu.

Fostering an appreciation of the arts is key component of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign’s new goal is to reach $175 million by 2025; currently, it has raised more than $160 million.

About West Texas A&M University

WT, a Regional Research University, is redefining excellence in Canyon, Texas, on a 342-acre residential campus, as well as the Harrington Academic Hall WTAMU Amarillo Center in downtown Amarillo. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT, a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2016, boasts an enrollment of more than 9,000 and offers 66 undergraduate degree programs, including eight associate degrees; and 44 graduate degrees, including an integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree, a specialist degree and two doctoral degrees. The University is also home to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the largest history museum in the state and the home of one of the Southwest’s finest art collections. The Buffaloes are a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference and offers 14 men’s and women’s athletics programs.

Photo: A still from “ Fósiles de lo que podría haber sido o quizás será” by Miguel Angel Salazar and Carlos Ivan Hernandez, featured in the upcoming "A Mountain of My Making" in the Dord Fitz Formal Art Gallery at West Texas A&M University.

—WT—