Nepantla: Maps for Uncharted Futures

The CVA Gallery at Brookdale Community College, supported by the Visiting Artist Program, was proud to present Nepantla: Maps for Uncharted Futures, a solo exhibition by Uruguayan-American artist Ana Vizcarra Rankin, MFA. Organized around themes of place, post-coloniality, and self, Nepantla: Maps for Uncharted Futures explored the idea that maps tell stories and convey subjective ideas about the world—often far beyond mere facts. The exhibit featured Rankin’s large-scale world maps, such as Warm Acid Bath (2018, mixed media on cotton canvas, 60” x 96”), which, drawing inspiration from Uruguayan constructivist artist Joaquín Torres García, situated the Global South at the top. Alongside her Star Maps series, which depicted the night sky at specific locations and times, these unexpected presentations of place pluralized the narratives that maps convey, disoriented viewers, and opened new possibilities for considering the world and our place in it.

The title of the exhibit was inspired by Borderlands: La Frontera, the groundbreaking book by Tejana Chicana queer feminist poet, philosopher, writer, and educator Gloria Anzaldúa. Anzaldúa used the Nahuatl word nepantla to represent both the “in-between state” of Chicano/a/x people and to frame broader discussions of traversing and cleaving borders between race, class, nations, gender, and sexuality.

The concept of nepantla acknowledged that this ‘in-between’ or third condition—which emerges between two fixed states (for example, Chicana/o/x identity being neither Mexican nor American, but a third identity: Mexican-American)—could be a source of pain and othering, as well as a wellspring of strength and innovation. It was this source that inspired Rankin’s work and shaped the vision for the exhibit, which emerged from conversations between Rankin and curator Elisa Elorza about their lived experiences as a Uruguayan-American and a Mexican-American. These conversations also led to the decision to include a never-before-exhibited self-portrait, Ofrenda a Yemaya (self-portrait) (2012, oil on canvas, 24” x 36”).

Ana Vizcarra Rankin created research-based perceptual art centered on mapping, data visualization, and our place in the universe. Born in Uruguay and raised in both South and North America, Rankin’s work was widely exhibited and became part of notable collections, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum, the Brandywine River Museum of Art, and the Uruguay Cultural Foundation for the Arts. She received numerous accolades, including a Project Stream Grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and support from Creative Capital x Skoll.

Rankin participated in various international artist residencies, including the TrueQue Artist Residency in Ayampe, Ecuador; the Barnes Artist Residency in Umbertide, Italy; and Liliput Experimental in Puebla, Mexico. In addition to her studio practice, she founded BrobDinGnag International, a curatorial exchange program focused on diversity and inclusion. She held an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, a BA in Art History from Temple University, and studied architecture design at Oklahoma State University. Rankin served as a faculty member at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington.