Chicago artists build glass, coffee, and memory altars for 40th museum exhibit

For visitors walking into the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood this month, the air smells of orange marigolds and beeswax. The museum has opened its 40th annual Día de Muertos exhibition, titled “Where Memory Lives: 40 Years of Día de Muertos,” running through November 29. The show marks four decades of the institution’s effort to keep the tradition alive in the Midwest, a practice that has expanded from local community gatherings to a national retail presence.

Target, Walmart, Kohl’s, and Amazon now stock specific sections for the holiday, selling supplies for ofrendas, the homemade altars central to the observance. Even Lego has released a set featuring a sugar skull and an altar. Cesáreo Moreno, the museum’s chief curator, noted that while commercialization has grown, the core purpose remains a spiritual remembrance distinct from Halloween.

The current exhibition features works from local artists who use the altar as a canvas for personal history. Brookes Ebetsch, executive director of the Chicago Artists Coalition, constructed an altar for Gilberto Cárdenas, a former professor at the University of Notre Dame who died in late July. Cárdenas helped found the Latino Studies department at Notre Dame and played a key role in creating the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino. Ebetsch included a Smith Corona typewriter, Peet’s coffee cups, and a package of Biscoff cookies, items associated with Cárdenas’s daily life. The display also features photos of artists Cárdenas supported, serving as a map of his influence.

CHema Skandal!, a printmaker, created a minimalist altar for his father, Don Chema, who died at age 76 in January. The centerpiece is a portrait drawn with ink and ground coffee, a nod to his father’s roots in a coffee-growing region of Puebla. The portrait rests on a petate, a traditional handwoven sleeping mat from his father’s village. Skandal! included 76 coffee beans to represent his father’s years of life and wisps of plastic to reference the whistles handed out during Chicago’s ICE protests, a symbol of solidarity.

David Rios, a glass artist, built his entire triptych altar from glass and 24-karat gold. His work reflects on the physical journey of border crossings, featuring marigolds shaped like eternal flames and a red basket representing family offerings. The piece is dedicated to those who do not make it across the border.

The most traditional piece in the show is a collaboration between Oaxacan artist Demetrio García Aguilar and his late mother, Josefina Aguilar. She died in February at age 80 and was known for her clay portraits. Their altar features a gate of fruit and flowers surrounding layers of candles, bread, and food, adhering to the classic structure that typically includes three tiers topped by a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The exhibit includes at least one classic ofrenda, one art-driven piece, and one that highlights Chicago and Midwestern communities. Carina Yepez, a Pilsen resident and textile artist, first learned about ofrendas at age 19 while working as a tour guide at the museum. She now builds altars year-round in her home, a practice she says opens a space to discuss grief in a culture that often discourages it.