Eso es la vida/This is life: Graphic Design from Mexico

Eso es la vida/This is life assembles examples of graphic design from Mexico's past and present to examine the field's development over the past century and its role in popular culture.

The exhibition includes examples of posters, typography, and sign painting, as well as video and digital media that reveal visual communication as a vital facet of everyday life.

Eso es la vida brings foundational figures like José Guadalupe Posada and the Taller de Gráfica Popular into dialogue with contemporary practitioners including Estudio Herrera, the Red de Reproducción y Distribución, Carla Valdivia Nakatani, and others. Collectively, these works reflect state efforts to create a new national public after the Mexican Revolution along with contemporary calls to complicate any simple sense of national identity or visual style.

As activist printmaker Leopoldo Mendez reminds us, the role of the maker is to be an agent in such struggles over the everyday, “eso es la vida.”

This exhibition is curated by Robert J Kett, PhD, Assistant Professor, Design Anthropology at Art Center College of Design.

Lead sponsorship for this exhibition provided by Elizabeth Edwards Harris. Additional funding is provided by Mimi & Steve Fisher, and Douglas Moreland.