Sandra Vásquez de la Horra's 'The Awake Volcanoes' at ICA LA

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) presents 'The Awake Volcanoes,' a retrospective of Sandra Vásquez de la Horra featuring over a hundred graphite drawings, watercolor paintings, and accordion-folded paper sculptures. Born in Chile and raised under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, Vásquez de la Horra moved to Germany in 1995 to study fine arts and has lived there for four decades. The exhibition, previously shown at the Denver Art Museum and in Chile and Argentina, explores migration through fantastical beings that blend human, vegetal, and animal forms. Works like 'Volcánica (The Volcanic Woman)' (2023) and 'Anillo de fuego (Ring of Fire)' (2023) map Chile's volcanic zones onto female bodies, blurring geology and anatomy. The artist's encounter with Santería in 2000 influences pieces such as 'Yemanjá' (2025), a paper sculpture honoring the Yoruba deity. Language diversity—Spanish, German, English—appears in a salon-style wall of 71 graphite drawings, including the phrase 'El pueblo unido jamás será vencido.' The exhibition runs at ICA LA through an unspecified date.