TEMPE, AZ.- The ASU Art Museum presents “Carmen Lomas Garza: Picturing the Familiar,” the first major retrospective of the pioneering Mexican American artist in more than two decades. Born in Kingsville, Texas, Carmen Lomas Garza is an artist, educator and illustrator whose depictions of everyday Mexican American life have become deeply embedded in the cultural imagination across generations. Her work has profoundly shaped how Mexican American histories, traditions and values are seen, remembered and passed down. Visitors can see firsthand more than 50 years of artistic production at the exhibition, which opened May 2, 2026 and runs through September 10, 2026. This exhibition is organized by Senior Curator Alana Hernandez, with Latinx Curatorial Fellow Natalie Solis
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Garza’s work offers a powerful and enduring reminder: To picture oneself is to preserve history and to imagine a shared future. Tracing her artistic journey, from Kingsville, Texas to San Francisco, California, “Picturing the Familiar” brings for the first time to public view a mixture of paintings, works on paper, public art and archival materials alongside works by her longtime counterparts, including Santa Barraza, César A. Martínez, Amalia Mesa-Bains and Ester Hernandez. The exhibition positions Garza as a visionary documentarian of lived experience.

“We’re often taught the histories of this country — and of movements like the Chicano Movement — as if they were monolithic. Carmen’s work reminds us otherwise,” said Hernandez. “Her vision illuminates distinct stories of South Texas and Mexican American life, revealing that there are many movements, many experiences. What she creates is deeply specific yet carries a universal resonance. Importantly, these narratives –– rooted and embedded in the cultural fabric of this country –– challenge and expand upon our understanding of what we see and know as ‘American art’.”

Organized across several sections, the exhibition examines the early years in South Texas, grounding Garza’s work in the social and political energy of the 1960s and 1970s and her participation in El Movimiento through groups such as MAYO and Los Quemados. Early works and archival materials reveal how art functioned as an extension of community organizing, cultural sovereignty and lived experience shaped by region and language within the broader Chicano Movement. From there, the exhibition moves into Garza’s exploration of healing and ritual, where scenes of curanderismo, devotional practices and everyday care connect spirituality, family and ancestral knowledge as sources of cultural resilience. The narrative follows Garza’s relocation to the Bay Area and her involvement with Galería de la Raza between 1976 and 1981, a period in which her visual language expanded alongside a growing commitment to cultural representation, education and grassroots Chicana/o/x artistic networks.

“Her art transcends time and place, offering lessons in memory and belonging that resonate across generations,” said ASU Art Museum Director Miki Garcia. “This retrospective affirms our commitment to artists whose work is deeply connected to community, history and collective imagination, and to the ways art can carry memory forward while shaping more inclusive futures.”

Following its presentation at the ASU Art Museum, “Carmen Lomas Garza: Picturing the Familiar” will tour nationally, with confirmed stops at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture and the El Paso Museum of Art, among others, forthcoming.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated scholarly catalogue published by the ASU Art Museum, distributed by the University of Texas Press and edited by Hernandez. The volume features several new scholarly contributions that investigate how Garza’s depictions of everyday Mexican American life function as both cultural affirmation and political resistance.

The richly illustrated publication features a director’s foreword, a selected chronology and new essays by Hernandez, Claudia E. Zapata, Deanna Ledezma, JoAnna Reyes and Natalie Solis, marking a renewed scholarly engagement with Garza’s expansive career.

“Carmen Lomas Garza: Picturing the Familiar” is the first major exhibition devoted to artist, activist and educator Carmen Lomas Garza (b. 1948) since 2001. Bringing fresh insight to her expansive career, the exhibition follows Garza’s work across drawing, painting, installation and sculpture. It also situates her practice within a broader cultural landscape, featuring works by contemporaries who collaborated with or influenced her at pivotal moments. Organized chronologically and shaped by thematic groupings, the exhibition traces Garza’s artistic evolution from the 1960s through the mid-2000s. By presenting her work alongside that of her peers, “Picturing the Familiar” illuminates shared aesthetics, recurring themes and the rich artistic networks that defined this period.

“Carmen Lomas Garza: Picturing the Familiar” is organized by ASU Art Museum Senior Curator Alana Hernandez, with ASU Art Museum Latinx Curatorial Fellow Natalie Solis. Major support is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Teiger Foundation. Generous funding is provided by the Institute for Museum and Library Sciences and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support is provided by The Airoldi-Huffman Family Foundation and the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with a Community of Practice composed of Rene Andrade, Chef; Susan Bauer, M.Ed, NBCT; Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz, Curandera; and Dr. Sonia Vega-López, Professor in Nutrition and Assistant Dean of Inclusive Excellence in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University.