SANDY RODRIGUEZ: BOOK 13 | MARCH 22, 2026–APRIL 26, 2027

 

Amidst intensifying human rights abuses across the nation and at the U.S.-Mexico border, Sandy Rodriguez unveils a monumental interdisciplinary research project for a year-long museum exhibition. Drawing on a range of colonial Mexican sources in dialogue with 19th-century maps and boundary surveys from The Huntington’s library collections, the installation brings together research on place, ecology, and regional histories.

This work synthesizes 16th-century Mexican colonial and 19th-century American sources with contemporary reports to explore past and present periods of resistance. The project culminates in an installation premiering Book 13—a hand-gilded artist codex—alongside a 20 x 8-foot map of the United States. Featuring new paintings and sculptures created with hand-processed watercolor on amate paper, as well as archival materials from the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, this exhibition offers a profound visual exploration of archives to understand the present and create a space for reflection.

March 11, 2026 “Art, Cartography and the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands” Sandy Rodriguez, Hannah and Russel Kully Distinguished Fellow Lecture at The Huntington

Rodriguez is the 2025–26 Hannah and Russel Kelly Distinguished Fellow in American Art at The Huntington, and this project grew out of her research residency, with support from Creative Capital Foundation