Juxtapositioned III by Durango Mendoza

• Duration:Temporary
• Location:Hundley Central Core

(date) 3/26/2024–4/28/2024

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 earned a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri. He then received funding from the Ford Foundation to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He studied painting, sculpture, and photography. He later worked in social services, eventually becoming an administrator with the Department of Children and Family Services. He earned an MA in Interdisciplinary Arts Education at Columbia College in Chicago while working for DCFS.

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.

Adapted from text by Jean Mendoza