Through June 26, Cincinnati painter Rebecca Nava Soto is showing work from her Chamula Series at Semantics Gallery (1107 Harrison Ave.) in the Brighton District. The work was made in response to her visit to a church in the Mexican village of San Juan de Chamula that combined Mayan rituals with Catholicism. Her work uses such materials as pine needles, copal smoke, paintings and painted wood shavings.
At the church, as she describes the visit on a Facebook page, she was met with hundreds of white candles in patterns on the floor, a loose carpet of pine needles and families chanting and presenting offerings ranging from Coca Cola bottles to live chickens. “Although I had been to Mexico dozens of times since I was born, I felt as if I had entered another universe,” she writes.
Exhibition hours are noon-4 p.m. on Saturdays. Get show and gallery details here.
