"Angel Baby" by Carlos DonJuan, "If There's Any Intelligence On Earth, It Must be in the Himalayas," and the Guerilla Girls' "The Advantages of Being A Woman Artist," greet gallery goers in "BAN THIS SHOW." (Photo by Brenda Ciardiello)
It is no coincidence that curator and Culture X Creative founder Amber Terriaco’s newest project, “BAN THIS SHOW,” opened in Fort Worth only days after the contentious 2024 presidential election.
With in-your-face artwork that leaves nothing unsaid, this once-virtual group show is now a real-life exhibition — as well as an open invitation to anyone who might be on the fence about whether art and politics should mix.
Terriaco teamed up with Fort Worth’s Lauren Saba to co-curate the exhibition at Fort Works Art, Saba’s gallery in Fort Worth. They brought together an impressive roster of over 30 global creatives that reads like a who’s who of contemporary activist artists. Terriaco’s aim is to create discourse, as well as continue her organization Culture X Creative‘s goal of uplifting artists through community projects.
Incorporating topics from war to reproductive rights, this exhibition is a call to come together and question our assumptions.
“Considering the state of the world right now, I felt it was the right time to promote healthy, artistic resistance,” says Terriaco. “It’s a good reminder that if you want to say something, we are in the United States, and you’re allowed to do that — safely,” Saba says.
Among the participants are feminist icons the Guerrilla Girls; Caledonia Curry, professionally known as Swoon; Pussy Riot’s founding member Nadya (Riot) Tolokonnikova, who was imprisoned by Vladimir Putin for her feminist band’s unrelenting criticism of the Russian regime; Ernesto Marenco, who showed in the 2024 Venice Biennale; and even Julie Pacino, Al Pacino’s filmmaker daughter, who contributed photographic stills from her newest psychological horror film I Live Here Now. The film is about a world where women are programmed to dissociate from their own bodies — a disturbingly timely notion in Texas where abortion has recently been banned.
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Several artists from the Lone Star State are also included in the show. Houston’s own Forrest Prince, who passed in 2015, posthumously reminds us of the power and necessity of outsider art; UT Arlington professor and painter Carlos Donjuan poignantly wields Mexican pop-culture symbols to discuss the challenges of displacement and migration; West Texas-based Lala Abaddon weaves the complexities of binaries and dual natures into her work; and Fort Worth’s Bernardo Vallarino-Portela, originally from Colombia, uses bullet shells, condoms, and dead insects to provoke a reckoning with the value we place (or don’t) on life in contemporary culture.
“I believe artists are tasked with the responsibility of being the mirrors to society,” says Vallarino-Portela. “It’s a responsibility I take very seriously. For years, whenever I show [this work,] people always say, ‘Bernardo, this is very timely.’ Well, unfortunately, yes — it always is.”
The curatorial goal — and challenge — in putting together such an outspoken group of artists is to make a multitude of determined and loud voices sing as one, while simultaneously shaking viewers out of the monolithic, herd-mentality that can tend to dominate the echo-chambers of social media.
“I [want] people to experience and really consider the transformative power of art in person,” says Terriaco. “I don’t want to tell people how to interpret the work — I want them to see it and decide what they think for themselves.”
Can we rise to the challenge of questioning our own views for the sake of our collective future? Check the show out and decide for yourself.
“BAN THIS SHOW” will be on view there through December 7 at Fort Works Art, 2100 Montgomery St. Learn more here.
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