Changing Faces: Traditional and Contemporary Mexican Masks

Changing Faces: Traditional and Contemporary Mexican Masks presents a selection of contemporary Mexican masks on loan from a private collection. The exhibition features three different, distinct design styles of Mexican masks: designs that predate the arrival of the Spanish in the region; those influenced by the arrival of Spanish; and the combination of the two styles that are born from the artist’s imagination.

Masks appear in virtually every region of the world and are one of the most ancient means of changing identity by assuming a new persona. Masks say as much about the people who make them, usually the community’s best artists, and the cultures that use them. Still used today in performances to entertain, distract, provoke, inspire, fear, and instruct the viewers and participants, masks are an important vehicle of cultural and spiritual power.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website