SAN DIEGO, CALIF.- On October 28, 2022, Mingei International Museum opened PI袮TAS: THE HIGH ART OF CELEBRATION, one of the first-ever exhibitions to spotlight pi馻tas as a traditional craft and vibrant contemporary art form. This groundbreaking show includes more than 80 works made by Latinx artists and makers from across the U.S. Work by traditional pi馻teros will be featured alongside the creations of artists who reinvent and reinterpret the pi馻ta to form a burgeoning, expressive medium. This exhibition is guest curated by Emily Zaiden, Curator of the Craft in America Center, and is a reimagining of an exhibition featured at the Craft in America gallery in 2021.

Exhibition Details
Works in this exhibition will explore how pi馻tas are designed, constructed and executed, along with the role they play in modern material culture and in artistic practices. Pi馻tas of all shapes and sizes will be on view reflecting culture, politics, identity and daily life. The exhibition features work from fourteen artists as well as collaborative works between the artists and their communities and studios. A selection of artists include:

Artist Justin Favela is known internationally for his large-scale installations and sculptures expressing his interactions with American pop culture and the Latinx experience. Favela is creating a lifesize pi馻ta car inspired by San Diego lowrider legends specifically for the museum and this exhibition.

Third-generation pi馻ta maker and founder of La Pi馻ta Design Studio in Los Angeles, Yesenia Prieto seeks to elevate appreciation for the creativity and artistry of pi馻tas by making them contemporary, grand-scale, and elaborate. Inspired by her family’s work, Prieto’s studio is reinventing traditional pi馻ta making through their custom pi馻tas, sculptures, masks and installations.




Diana Benavidez, a local binational artist, explores pi馻ta-making as a method of expression and storytelling. Her pi馻tas reflect her experiences growing up along the San Diego/Tijuana border, as well as her identity and culture. She views pi馻tas as a medium of resistance and taps their humorous potential to convey powerful critiques of governmental and institutional policies and to address women’s issues and the mistreatment of Latinx communities across the U.S. 

Exploring the beauty of the mundane and ordinary, pi馻ta artist and painter Francisco Palomares takes his pi馻tas out of context to make them worthy of a more thoughtful look. He frequently depicts pi馻tas in his painting playing on art historical narratives and present-day social challenges.

Guest curator Emily Zaiden from the Craft in America Center shares, “The contemporary artists featured in this exhibition reconsider the techniques, materials, function, tradition, and notion of the pi馻ta, forming a new language of imagined possibilities.”

“This exhibition expands our understanding of pi馻tas and art,” says Jessica Hanson York, Mingei International Museum Executive Director & CEO. “The works in PI袮TAS address current events and political issues with meticulous craftsmanship and creative design, a concept at the core of Mingei’s mission.”

Participating Artists
Diana Benavidez, Roberto Benavidez, Sita Bhaumik (Estamos Contra el Muro), Mari Carson, Amorette Crespo, Justin Favela, Lisbeth Palacios, Francisco Palomares, Yesenia Prieto, Josue Ramirez, Lorena Robletto, Isaias Rodriguez, Ana Serrano, Giovanni Valderas, Pinata Design Studio and Pi馻ta District