Featured image: Antonio Peña, Untitled, 2026 (detail). © Antonio Peña.

The exhibition by the contemporary Mexican artist Antonio Peña engages in a dialogue with the exhibition Eva Frankfurther – Drawn from Life.

Drawing on his own Afro-indigenous heritage, Peña explores the visibility of Afro-indigenous identities in Mexico. In his drawings, he examines how images shape notions of belonging and identity. To this end, he draws on visual motifs familiar from racist depictions, exaggerating and alienating them. Humour and irony become tools for revealing the contradictions and the construction of such attributions. In doing so, Peña highlights the history of racist imagery and its enduring impact. His works question how people are categorised through images and reduced to specific characteristics. At the same time, they reveal that such notions are not self-evident, but are shaped by historical and social visual traditions.

The exhibition expands on Eva Frankfurther – Drawn from Life by adding a contemporary perspective. Whilst Frankfurther focuses on people’s individuality beyond social attributions, Peña examines the visual worlds through which such attributions arise and are passed on.

Antonio Peña

Antonio Peña is an Afro-Indigenous artist, curator and cultural manager from Oaxaca, Mexico. His artistic practice encompasses drawing, installation and textile techniques. He is also active in the museum and exhibition sector and works as Head of Exhibition Design at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo y de las Culturas Oaxaqueñas (MACCO) in Oaxaca. His work explores the historical origins of violence and its cultural and social repercussions.