The Amon Carter Museum of American Art will present conceptual and multimedia artist Celia Álvarez Muñoz’s installation "El Límite" (the boundary or limit). Based in Texas, Muñoz is celebrated for her work that addresses the dichotomies of the Mexican American experience through photography, works on paper, and various multimedia.

In "El Límite," Muñoz explores the railroad and its role in the connection and division of countries, traditions, cultures, and languages. Muñoz’s installation at the Carter will be augmented by direct references to and works by Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, whose practice Muñoz first encountered at the Carter in his 1980 solo exhibition. "Posada’s Mexico," which was co-organized by the Carter, exposed Muñoz to the woodcut aesthetic of the iconic Mexican printmaker’s work and his interest in daily life and the railroad as subject matter, all of which deeply impacted the original conception of El Límite and the rest of Muñoz’s practice.

Anchoring the installation will be two large-scale photographs by Muñoz depicting a train formed with empty cans filled with mundane materials, both printed on felt and mounted on bright yellow walls. The images draw inspiration from the toy trains with which Muñoz’s father played while growing up on the US-Mexico border and also feature train-related stories in Spanish and English text directly on the works. Throughout the rest of the installation, satellite images painted in the gallery reflect the railroad’s role in facilitating the Mexican Revolution and as an industrial intervention into rural communities.

Several Posada relief prints from the Carter’s collection will complement the installation, allowing audiences to trace the direct references in form and style that Muñoz emits in her work. Visitors can also compare and contrast Posada’s depictions of various Mexican subcultures, customs, and symbols with that of Muñoz in each of the works.