Ruffin Gallery Closing Party - Fuego Eterno: Soberanías Visuales

October 10
5:00 PM to 10:00 PM

The Ruffin Gallery: Department of Art at UVA

179 Culbreth Rd. Charlottesville, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
Charlottesville, VA 22903-2446

Ruffin Gallery at the University of Virginia is pleased to invite you to the opening of Fuego Eterno: Soberanías Visuales, guest curated by Erika Hirugami, MA. MAAB. MPhil.

Exhibition dates: August 29-October 10, 2025

Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm

179 Culbreth Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903

"Ayuujk (Mixe), Nahua, Maya-Ch'ol, Ñuu Savi (Mixtec), Otomí, Maya-Kaqchikel, P'urhépecha, Diidxazà, Maya-Tsotsil, Zapotec, and Sarhua, are but a few of the ancestral lineages that collide in Fuego Eterno: Soberanías Visuales. This project brings together the knowledge and aesthetic achievements of individuals whose ancestral lineage predates Spanish colonialism and who center millennia of inherited epistemologies within their contemporary practices. Fuego Eterno: Soberanías Visuales aesthetically departs from a critical interrogation of nation and citizenship as concrete hope to create sovereign solidarities. At the height of the Spanish Empire, it colonized over thirty-five modern nations. Fuego Eterno: Soberanías Visuales unites them to blur the boundaries of settler colonialism by bringing together artists and scholars from the contemporary nations of México, United States, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru, Bolivia, Philippines, Chile, Jamaica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea, and many others in an effort to shift toward a new paradigm of interdisciplinary scholarship that transcends borders, linguistics, fields of study, geographical segregation, and extractive colonial epistemologies, methodologies and knowledge making approaches."

-Erika Hirugami, Curator

Exhibiting Artists: Marilyn Boror Bor, Edgar Calel, Andrea Chung, Darwin Cruz, Federico Cuatlacuatl, Elvira Espejo Ayca, Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, Scherezade GarcÍa, Giovanni Fabián Guerrero, Porfirio Gutiérrez, Maruch Méndez, Isabel Rojas Williams, Venuca Evanán Vivanco, Salvador Xharicata

Soft Opening Reception: Friday, August 29, 5-7pm

Join us in Ruffin Hall for light refreshments to celebrate the exhibition opening

Symposium: Thursday, October 9, 9am-3:30pm

Join us at the Harrison/Small Auditorium for a series of panel discussions and screenings by distinguished visiting artists, scholars, and UVA faculty.

Closing Party: Friday, October 10, 5pm-10pm

Party with us! DJ, dancing, food and drinks will be enjoyed by all. Guest curator, scholars and exhibiting artists will be in attendance and there will be a special performance by Marilyn Boror Bor.

Learn more about Fuego Eterno: Soberanías Visuales and Global Spanish here.

This exhibition is supported by UVA Arts & Science's Global Spanish and UVA Department of Art's Ruffin Distinguished Artist-in-Residence program.