Best Of Tucson®

Best Wild Art Show

Borderlandia: Cultural Topographies by Einar and Jamex de la Torre

The brothers de la Torre opened Tucson's celebration of glass art with a museum-size carnival of insanely creative art: a spinning glass Ferris wheel with a human heart impaled on every spoke; a cheerfully erect glass penis; a Virgin of Guadalupe simplified into a giant life-giving vagina; a border-crossing migrant crucified on a glass saguaro. Cross-cultural products of Central Mexico and Southern California, the de la Torres madly mix every metaphor—and artifact—in the wild cultural mix that is the borderlands. They embed beer caps in fine glass; Photoshop Mexican movie stars onto a Renaissance altarpiece; and even pair Elvis with Aztec feathers. Julie Sasse, TMA's chief curator, is a superhero for bringing this provocative show to town in a time of anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant furor.