Haydee Rovirosa Gallery is pleased to present Media Asta (Half-Mast), an exhibition comprised of Mexican artists’ responses to the consequences of patriotism. The exhibition is concentrated on a younger generation of artists who are of Mexican origin or who currently claim Mexico City as their home.

While the smell of charred beef wafts through the summer air in celebration of Independence Day, Media Asta (Half-Mast) explores the defining characteristics of nationalism. The participating artists dissect the construction of national pride by referencing objects steeped in patriotic symbolism – flags, stamps, food – or ephemeral concepts such as celebrity culture.

From an examination of the bearaucratic red tape wrapped around obtaining citizenship to the fervor with which sports fans support their home teams, much of the work in Media Asta (Half-Mast) recognizes similarities between expressions of Mexican and American national pride. Other works show us that some phenomena are distinctly American. The final facet of the exhibition explores the use of traditional patriotic symbols to provoke extreme reactions in today’s atmosphere of pseudo-patriotism.

Participating artists include: Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Balam Bartolomé, Tania Candiani, José Luis Cortés, Alex Dorfsman, Máximo González, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Paulina Lasa, Armando Miguélez, Marco Rountree, Benjamín Torres, and Alvaro Verduzco. The exhibition is curated by Christina Vassallo in collaboration with Paulina Lasa.