Mid-Summer 2024 Issue

XOCHITLALPAN IS THE Nahuatl word for “The Land of Flowers.” This land is a mythical afterworld of everlasting flowers and joy described in the Aztec/Mexica pre-Hispanic and later-colonial poetic tradition known as In Xochitl In Cuicatl (Flower and Song). It is also the evocative title of San Marcos-based artist Gabo Martinez’s exhibit at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, a colorful, immersive installation in the museum’s front gallery of ceramics and large-scale prints inspired by her indigenous roots, as well as images pulled from the oral tradition of Flower Songs. It’s a show where floor-to-ceiling prints radiate with all the colors of nature on a sunny day, and the pottery simply sings.