AZ ArtWorker: Betsabeé Romero

The following is an except from an article written by Lysandra Marquez published in The Downtown Devil, April 13, 2017.

“Un Muro Ensimismado,” or “A Wall Within Itself,” was unveiled during a reception on Sunday presented by Celebracion Artistica de las Americas (CALA Alliance) and AZ ArtWorker, a program of the Arizona Commission on the Arts. The installation features a car seemingly cut in half by a wall. On one side, the vehicle is painted gold, and on the other, it is covered by a world map and inscriptions written in English and Spanish.

Gabriela Muñoz, manager of AZ ArtWorker and artist programs manager at the Arizona Commission on the Arts, got the idea to bring Romero to Phoenix after she learned that the Phoenix Art Museum had acquired one of Romero’s pieces in their permanent collection.

Muñoz, a trained artist, is also a long-time fan of Romero’s work. After an introduction to Romero, facilitated by a colleague at the Phoenix Art Museum, Muñoz decided to partner up with Casandra Hernandez, Curator at CALA Alliance, to bring the program to fruition.

“We reached out to Betsabeé, and she immediately said that she’d love to come and do some work in Arizona, so several months later here she was,” Muñoz said.

The finished piece is representative of migration traditions that have shaped the country, something that is meaningful to Muñoz, who said the title would not be translated from Spanish due to the loss of nuance.

“To have an artist of Betsabeé’s caliber and to have it matched by our artists here just really humbles me,” she said. “As someone who is a migrant herself, the piece is extremely personal and moving.”

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Betsabeé Romero

Betsabeé Romero lives and works in Mexico City. She has realized more than 30 individual exhibitions in México, the United States and Europe, and has participated in a large number of residencies and international biennials. Her work is part of important collections, including: The British Museum, Daros Collection in Switzerland, Phoenix Art Museum, Nelson & Atkins Nevada Museum of Art, World Bank in Washington D.C., Gelman (México), MOCA Los Angeles, and The Museum of Contemporary Art of Porto Alegre (Brazil). She received a Masters in Art History from UNAM, México, a Masters in Fine Arts from ENAP San Carlos, UNAM, México, a Bachelors of Arts from the Universidad Iberoamericana, México, and studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris, France.

Participating Artists

Leonor Aispuro

Giovana Aviles

Oliverio Balcells

Gloria Casillas

Martin Moreno

Gabriela Muñoz

Estrella Payton

Jenea Sanchez