The first major art exhibition to examine influential works that foreground the Brown body as a site to explore, expand, and complicate traditional conceptions linked to Mexican, Mexican American, and Xicanx experiences launches its national tour at The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum on June 17, 2023. Organized by The American Federation of Arts (AFA), Xican–a.o.x. Body weaves a rich tapestry of diverse media, from the late 1960s through today, including Lowrider cars, poetry, pottery, painting, photography, sculpture, and film. Consisting of approximately 125 artworks by about 70 artists and artist collectives, Xican–a.o.x. Body will be on view at The Cheech in Southern California through January 7, 2024.

Xican–a.o.x. Body adds complexity to understandings of Chicanx art and culture by exploring the visual practices that foreground the body as the site in which imagination and political enunciation are articulated. The artists in the exhibition celebrate the creativity of decolonized political personas that are playful, unapologetic, and irreverent. These multidisciplinary perspectives erase any presumed hierarchy between popular art and what has traditionally been thought of as “high art.”