Exploration of Mexican American identity at SMoCA

stories—often untold and unseen— that Fernandez has brought forward in her work.

“There are multiple ways to engage with the artwork in the exhibition, and I hope that allows people the opportunity to find the connecting lines in her work that should speak to us all,” Turley said.

“Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures” brings together the artist’s most important bodies of works for the first time, allowing audiences to discover the threads that connect them, both formal and conceptual. The exhibition draws from the series “Lavanderia,” “Manuela S-T-I-T-C-H-E-D,” “Untitled Multiple Exposures” and “View from Here.”

“My work plays with the conventions of photography and is carefully crafted to express my interest and concern in regard to women’s stories and histories, immigration, labor and motherhood,” Fernandez said.

Through work that spans decades, Fernandez compels her viewers to reconsider history, the border and the real lives that cross and inhabit them. SMoCA’s location in a border state and its own history in exhibiting work that examines life along the border positions the museum as an ideal location for an exhibition of Fernandez’s work.

Keshia Turley, assistant curator at SMoCA, organized the museum’s version of the exhibition. Turley said it is her hope that visitors will find various ways to connect with the

SMoCA—named “Best Museum” by the Phoenix New Times in the 2022 Best of Phoenix awards—is located at 7374 E. Second St. in Old Town Scottsdale. It is open Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

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