Join us for the latest exhibition from Border Art Residency artist, Bella Maria Varela. Titled La Xingana Vol. 3, the show will take place this Saturday November 20 at our Border Art Residency headquarters on Piedras in Five Points.

La Xingada Vol. 3 is an immersive exhibition combining textile and video work by Bella Maria Varela with paper mache masks by Xingaderas - Manuel Urueta and Celina Galicia. La Xingada explores the in-between spaces in which a community of masked hybrid creatures navigate land - hiding, camouflaging, disappearing and dancing freely over, through, and between borders or boundaries that feel restrictive. La Xingada will honor the multiplicity of our experience, and address the importance of dissolving borders and barriers.

Bella and Manu invite children of all ages to attend kid hours (5-8pm) where they will be able to try on masks and perform in front of a green screen. During the adult hours (8pm-11pm), they will premiere the video, Burrofante, and serve light snacks and beverages.

About the artists:

Bella Maria Varela moved to El Paso this past summer to attend the Border Art Residency. She is originally from Washington, DC and is a proud daughter of Guatemalan immigrants. Bella is a recent grad of the I Imaging Master’s program at the University of Arizona School of Art. During Spring 2021, Bella was accepted into the Mellon-Fronteridades Graduate Fellowship Program and exhibited her thesis exhibition, @border_becky, at the University of Arizona Museum of Art.

Manuel Urueta and Celina Galicia are both from the Juarez-El Paso area. They started Xingaderas in 2015 and have exhibited at Glasbox Gallery, Loft Light gallery, Cholo gallery, Heavens Portal, Galería Lincoln, and local artisan markets and fairs throughout El Paso and Juarez. They have also taught papier mache workshops at the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts and El Paso Museum of History. Celina recently won second prize in the Plaza Classic Film Festival’s Local Flavor showcase for her short film, Cenicero de Dios.

Bella and Manu are currently working with ArtStream to teach interdisciplinary video art and papier mache workshops to 4th and 5th graders in Northeast schools. Bella is also teaching art classes with Transformative Learning Communities (TLC) in El Chamizal.