Realidad Norteña
Object Details
- Artist
- Cornelio Campos
- Date
- ca.1999
- Medium
- acrylic on canvas
- Dimensions
- 36 5/16 × 60 1/4 × 2 7/8 in. (92.3 × 153 × 7.3 cm)
- Cite As
- Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
- Caption
- On a precisely divided canvas, painter Cornelio Campos (1971-) contrasts landscapes, symbols, and life experiences of his home country, Mexico, with those of the United States, to which he immigrated as a teen. In a series of split icons, for example, the Virgin of Guadalupe on the Mexican side mirrors the Statue of Liberty on the US side of the flag-like painting. The open wings of a monarch butterfly, known for its migration from Mexico to the US, become a bridge over the barbed-wire border, however. Campos found painting Realidad Norteña, or Reality of the North, healing after his own difficult journey from an indigenous Tarascos community in Michoacán to Los Angeles and, eventually, to North Carolina. The self-taught artist examines how immigrants imagine the US, the severe circumstances that people leave behind, and what they endure during and after their arrival. Along with Campos’s work boots (2017.17.1a-b) and bus ticket (2017.17.2a-b) from his migration north, the acrylic painting was on display in the Anacostia Community Museum’s exhibition, Gateways/Portales, from December 2016 to January 2018.
- Accession Number
- 2016.0007.0001
- Type
- painting
- See more items in
- Anacostia Community Museum Collection
- Data Source
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Metadata Usage
- Not determined
- Record ID
- acm_2016.0007.0001
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.