Code-X

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Code-X: Contemporary Chicanx Codices

Curated by Rafael Fajardo

On view at the Vicki Myhren Gallery from January 9 to February 23, 2025

The Vicki Myhren Gallery is proud to present Code-X: Contemporary Chicanx Codices, curated by DU’s own Rafael Fajardo, Professor of Emergent Digital Practices. This exhibition brings together the artworks of more than a dozen Chicanx artists who reimagine the long tradition of the codex as a dynamic space for Chicanx storytelling. Ranging from painting and prints to comic books, zines, and video games, these artworks bridge the analog and digital. The artists mix the ancient, colonial, and modern to explore the complexities of contemporary life, including migration, Mestizaje, and cultural survival. Featuring many interactive artworks, this exhibition invites all visitors to play and engage with these innovative and thoughtful reworkings of the codex. 

Featured Artists:

  • Anthony Aleman 
  • Yreina D. Cervántez 
  • Enrique Chagoya  
  • Michael DeAnda, PhD 
  • Adán De La Garza 
  • Carlos Fresquez 
  • Eric J. García 
  • Dulce Soledad Ibarra 
  • Alma López 
  • Cherish Marquez 
  • Michael Menchaca 
  • Francisco Ortega 
  • Sandy Rodriguez 
  • Leo Sailas 
  • Miguel A. Tarango 

All photos courtesy of Wes Magyar

Code-X reinventa la larga tradición de los códices como un espacio dinámico para la narración, la construcción de identidad y la resistencia de los chicanx contemporáneos. A través de narrativas visuales que se pliegan y eluden el tiempo, los artistas recurren a historias antiguas, coloniales y modernas, fusionando el conocimiento ancestral con las experiencias actuales. Estas obras reconfiguran el formato del códice para explorar las complejidades de la migración, la indigeneidad, el mestizaje y la supervivencia cultural, encarnando historias que se resisten a ser borradas y reclaman espacio dentro del panorama del arte estadounidense. Los códices de esta exhibición no son reliquias estáticas del pasado, sino documentos vivos y en evolución que desafían las historias lineales y ofrecen visiones de nuevos futuros. 

Curada por Rafael Fajardo, 

Translation/edit by Karin Fajardo  

Gracias a los prestamistas de la exposición, incluidos el Museo de las Américas, el Jardín Botánico de Denver y Shark’s Ink. Un agradecimiento especial a Victoria Lyall por asesorar y defender este proyecto. Gracias a Kate Crowe y las Colecciones Especiales de la Universidad de Denver. 

Code-X reimagines the long tradition of the codex as a dynamic space for contemporary Chicanx storytelling, identity-building, and resistance. Through visual narratives that fold and elide time, the artists draw from ancient, colonial, and modern histories, merging ancestral knowledge with present-day experiences. These works reconfigure the codex format to explore the layered complexities of migration, indigeneity, Mestizaje, and cultural survival, embodying stories that resist erasure and reclaim space within the broader landscape of American art. The codices in this exhibition are not static relics of the past, but living, evolving documents that challenge linear histories and offer visions of new futures. 

Curated by Rafael Fajardo 

Thank you to lenders to the exhibition including Museo de las Americas, Denver Botanic Gardens, and Shark’s Ink. Special thanks to Victoria Lyall for advising on and championing this project. Thank you to Kate Crowe and the Special Collections of the University of Denver. 

Code-X in the news

“Words and Images Come Alive: The Enduring Legacy of Mesoamerican Codices” by Georgi Kyorlenski, Mayer Center Fellow, Arts of the Ancient Americans at the Denver Art Museum