NHCC News:
ALBUQUERQUE — In collaboration with the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, the National Hispanic Cultural Center is proud to announce a new art exhibition that explores the impact that nuclear technologies have on communities locally, nationally, and globally through art.
Nuclear Past, Present, and Future: Art in Action opens at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) Visual Art Museum Friday, April 10.
“The artworks on display are testaments to survival and resistance, and they demonstrate the power that community and art can have in the journey towards healing and recovery,” NHCC Visual Art Program Manager Jadira Gurulé said. “We’re grateful to the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, along with all of the artists who were willing to share their stories with us.”
New Mexico occupies a unique space in the nuclear industry’s past, present, and future as the birthplace of the atomic bomb in 1945. Through the lens of artistic expression, Nuclear Past, Present, and Future examines the impact of these technologies, the devastating human and environmental toll of those technologies, and the expression and activism of community members advocating for justice.
This exhibition features 60 artworks by 32 artists, many of whom are from communities directly affected by nuclear testing, uranium mining, and weapons production in New Mexico. The exhibition also includes artists whose work engages these histories from broader geographic and cultural perspectives. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation, the artists in this exhibition use material, form, and narrative to do what statistics and policy cannot: make harm felt, remembered, and ethically unavoidable.
Nuclear Past, Present, and Future will be on view in the NHCC Visual Art Museum through Jan. 24, 2027. Friday, April 10, the Center invites visitors to a free opening reception from 5-7:30 p.m. Artist panel talks and other public events will be scheduled throughout the exhibition’s run, visit nhccnm.org/events to learn more. Additional information about the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium is available at trinitydownwinders.com.