La Ceiba: The Sacred Tree of Life Art Exhibition

La Ceiba: The Sacred Tree of Life Art Exhibition, opens Saturday, October 19 and runs through Sunday, November 3, 2024. Paintings and photographs in the exhibit reflect a diversity of artists in the North Texas region. Their approach examines one or all aspects of death, life, and rebirth. While not prevalent in today’s over stimulated popular culture, the mythology of the Maya is transformed into a sublime visual language. Paintings, photographs and relief works include innovative techniques to introspective narratives.

Centering the exhibition, The Banquet is a site-specific work transforming the Art Deco main hall of the Crown Hill Mausoleum into a dramatic space celebrating life by artist Art Garcia.

Influenced by both, Maya mythology the Ceiba tree (a link to the worlds underground, earthly existence, and heavens) and Día de los Muertos from a blend of Christian and Mayan (with alters and ofrendas to loved ones), The Banquet offers a glimpse into spiritual worlds, through offerings at the dinner table. Expanding on the traditional offering at the altar, the installation sets a banquet. It becomes a heavenly gathering, honoring 21 distinct lives, people who are buried in Crown Hill Memorial Park and Mausoleum, a cemetery in Dallas, Texas and the site of the installation.

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago honored the lives and accomplishments of women at a time when women were often omitted from history and conversation-remembered, if at all, only as secondary characters. The Banquet celebrates the lives of people who may have lived quiet lives, who may be all but forgotten today, who the viewer may not know but will recognize as distinct lives from the displays at each place setting.

“I value the traditions of my ancestors. Our rich culture seems more tangible today like never before. The traditional way of building an ofrenda is to apply everything that reminds us of our loved one on the altar. The Banquet is a spiritual space, one where the ofrenda and the heavens are as one, where life and death and rebirth become one. Where we can take time to listen to the quiet, small voices of those who are no longer with us, recognizing them as a distinct life,” says Garcia.

Grand Opening Celebración Details

Saturday, October 19, 2024

The Banquet by Art Garcia

La Ceiba: The Sacred Tree of Life Arts Exhibition

Installation and Art on view 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Performance by Carolina Imperial at 6:00 p.m.

Free admission

Crown Hill Memorial Park and Mausoleum

9718 Webb Chapel Road

1. Dallas, Texas 75220

Host or Publisher Donna Miller