Rollins Museum of Art is excited to host an artist talk with interdisciplinary artist Saúl Hernández-Vargas, whose mixed media artwork is featured in Souvenir, an exhibition that explores the intertwined histories of travel and collecting. As a Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Artist Saúl Hernández-Vargas addresses themes of displacement, heritage, and place through multiple media and highlights his works in the exhibition Souvenir.
Artist Talk with Saúl Hernández-Vargas
Tuesday, March 3 at 6pm
In-person or via livestream
About the Artist
Saúl Hernández-Vargas is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work invokes the specters haunting the cracks and fissures of the Nation-State’s narratives. Recently, he has exhibited and performed in Houston Climate Justice Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, the Blaffer Art Museum (Houston) and the Lawndale Art Center (Houston). He was an artist in residence at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands (Arizona State University), and the Dust Program (Marfa). His work has been discussed in The Tyranny of Common Sense by Irmgard Emmelhainz (Sunny Press, 2021).
In 2020, he developed Afilada Radio and co-curated No hay lengua humana que—a series of radio interventions for independent radio projects in Mexico. His first book, Te preparé humo, was published in 2019 (UNAM, Mexico). He co-founded the publishing project Sur+. Hernández-Vargas holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego and an Interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Houston. Currently he is a Core Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston.
The Flayed Ones
This work by Mexican artist Saúl Hernández Vargas explores the layered histories of Mesoamerican culture and how its legacies are passed down through generations. Inspired by the 1931 discovery of a Mesoamerican noble’s gold mask from 600-800 BCE, the artist’s grandfather, Alfonso Vargas Sánchez, recreated the mask in the 1960s for the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and later for the tourist market.
The piece displayed here examines the mask in its different forms—archaeological artifact, handcrafted replica, and artwork. Rooted in historical research and personal experience, Hernández Vargas’s work questions traditional stories of power, heritage, and culture, prompting viewers to think critically about how objects are collected, shown, and understood.
Image: Saúl Hernández-Vargas (Mexican, 1982) , The Flayed Ones, 2024, Bronze, skin, silver, Variable dimensions. Image courtesy of the artist.
Souvenir at Rollins Museum of Art
This thought-provoking exhibition features artwork and objects from the museum’s world-class collection, Olin Library Archive, and artist Saúl Hernández-Vargas.
Free admission Tuesday-Sunday.