LOGAN — What began as a form of expression for Latinos caught up in the U.S. prison system is the focus of a new art exhibit at Utah State University.
“We collect different art and try to highlight stories of people who are generally underrepresented at art museums,” said Shaylee Briones, who handles marketing for the museum.
“Artepaño: Chicano Prisoner Kerchief Art” has been on display since Aug. 4, but a formal opening and program on the exhibit at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art is scheduled for Saturday from 5-8 p.m. at 650 N. 1100 East in Logan.
Artepaño, as it originated, features detailed works of art, penciled or inked onto white square handkerchiefs — paños in Spanish — that would typically be available for purchase by inmates in prisons, according to a press release from the museum. The form originated in prisons of the U.S. Southwest by inmates who variously identified as Chicano, Mexican American, Latino or Hispanic.
“Imagery ranges from depictions of the barrio, gang life, faith and allegorical depictions of prisoner life to iron bars, guard towers, clocks, sad figures, fellow prisoners and loved ones,” the museum said.
Many Chicano families have paño art pieces sent from inmate family members conveying their mixed sentiments. From those roots, they have evolved into their own art form, says Ben Olguín, director of the Global Latinidades Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
“While paños usually are meant for private consumption, they have become renowned for their artistry and range of visual narratives, which situate these artworks alongside signature barrio art forms such as graffiti, tattoos, murals, lowrider art and older forms that include underground zines and Chicano music,” Olguín said.
Briones said the Utah State University museum has four artepaño pieces in its collection. At the same time, the exhibit will feature 71, most from the private collection of Reno Leplat-Torti, a collector, and others from the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“To date, it remains a creative expression practiced clandestinely by pintos across the country, with secrecy forced upon artists through draconian cuts to rehabilitation programs enacted by state legislators,” said Álvaro Ibarra, an assistant professor of art at Utah State and the curator of the exhibit. Pintos is a Spanish slang term for Chicanos, a term for Mexican Americans, who are or have been imprisoned.
Katie Lee-Koven, executive director of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, said the exhibit has roots in Ibarra’s realization that the museum had the four artepaño pieces.
“You won’t find paños in many art museum collections, but the core of NEHMA’s collecting focus has always been to collect and exhibit art that reflects the fullest range of human and artistic experiences in the western United States,” she said. The museum puts a priority on the “stories and creative expression that best reflect ‘us’ in the broadest meaning possible.”
Saturday’s formal opening will feature the screening of a 25-minute film on the art form. That will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Ibarra, Olguín, Laplat-Torti and others.
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