Día de Muertos Featured Artist | Matie Rhodes 2024

For the 2024 Día de Muertos exhibition at Matie Rhodes, I was selected as a featured artist and commissioned to create the central visual work for the show, which was also adapted for the official event flyer and related merchandise, extending the artwork’s visibility beyond the gallery space into the broader community.

The piece presents a layered paper-cut composition of a white anatomical heart being broken and gently repaired by a hummingbird, surrounded by cempasúchil (marigold) flowers. Rooted in Mexican Día de Muertos traditions, the imagery draws on culturally significant symbols of remembrance, spiritual connection, and guidance between worlds.

The hummingbird, traditionally understood as a messenger between the living and the deceased, becomes a central metaphor for ongoing relational presence and continuity across loss. The use of cempasúchil reinforces communal ritual practices that invite remembrance as an active, shared experience.