Exhibit: Juxtapositioned III by Durango Mendoza

• Event Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2024–Sunday, April 28, 2024
• Location: Hundley Central Core Gallery, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free

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Durango Mendoza (1945–2020) was an artist, photographer, and published writer of short stories and poetry. He was a resident of Illinois for about 50 years—first in Chicago, then Oak Park, then Urbana.

He was born at Claremore Indian Hospital in Claremore, Oklahoma. His mother, a boarding school survivor, was a factory worker then housewife. His father was a meatpacker and restless soul. Like his mother, Durango was an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma. He was Fuswvlke (Bird Clan); his Etvlwv (tribal town) was Eufaula Canadian.

Durango's ideas about Indigenous identity are interwoven—juxtaposed—with his relationship with the world around him, reaching back to his childhood, making meaning of the world on his own.