Dancing with Devils: Latin American Mask Tradition

Ritter Art Gallery

On View: January 23 – February 22, 2025

Celebration Reception: January 23, 4:30 - 8:30 

 

Featuring: Leonardo Carrizo, Doña Iselsa, Suárez-Ramírez Manuel, “El Mocho” Sanoja, Italo Espín, Felix “El Pescador” Vásquez, Victor Justo, José Betancourt, Felipe Abreu, Manuel Jesús Jiménez, Miguel “El Chino” Caraballo

Diablada festivals are among the most widely recognized celebrations in Latin America, with transatlantic roots tracing back to 15th century dances of the Moors and the Christians in the Iberian Peninsula. In this celebration, festive devils dance, play, laugh at authority, provoke, and taunt spectators dressed as multifaceted masked figures of Latin America’s past and present. This traveling exhibition come to us from the Ohio State’s Center for Latin American Studies along with documentary photographs of the Diablada de Píllaro (Devils Dance of Píllaro, Ecuador) by photojournalist Leonardo Carrizo (OSU School of Communications). Also in exhibit are holdings from FAU’s anthropology department and University Art Collection highlighting the University’s research.

 

Images: Picture 1: (left to right) Los Diablos, Leonardo Carrizo, 2017, digital photography.  El Vejigante, Miguel "El Chino" Caraballo, mask; Cachúa Mask, La Vega, Dominican Republic, 1989, mask; Unfinished, unpainted lechón mask, Victor Justo, Santo de los Caballeros, Domnican Republic, 1987, unpainted mask; Griffin Head Mask with Cow's Teeth, Felix "El Pescador" Vásquez, mask, cow's teeth. Portrait, Leonardo Carrizo, 2022, digital photograph. "Lechoncito", Victor Justo, 1987, mask. Picture 2: Mask Creation Materials, Leonardo Carrizo, 2017, digital photography; Unfinished, Unpainted Newspaper 3-Horned Mask, Doña Iselsa Suárez Ramirez, 1987,  mask; Bailarín de línea, Leonardo Carrizo, 2017, digital photography. Picture 3: Devil Masks from Latin America, Leonardo Carrizo, digital photography.