Premiering new work inspired by the exhibition Mario Ayala: Seven Vans and Southwest car culture, Raquel Gutiérrez offers a creative inquiry into the modern and contemporary imaginaries of ruins in and of the Southwest United States and how we arrive at them. 

Why is the parking lot the new paved paradise for third-space lovers? How does our daily rage simmer in the endless torrent of freeway traffic?

 In cultural discourse, as materials, they are often associated with quaint tourist attractions or upcycled rasquache soon-to-be chic. As metaphor and process, however, they are timelier than ever before as they speak to the decay of the American dream and other myths associated with progress narratives of Western expansion and Manifest Destiny. Join Gutiérrez as they consider the ways in which representations of the built environment and infrastructure underscore social space, mobility, and relationality and how ruins pinpoint time and space in one historical pulse.

This event is free to attend. Seating will be limited. RSVP is recommended.

RSVPs will open for members March 2–8. RSVPs will open to the public on March 9, 2026.