Exhibition of textiles, ceramics, paintings, metalwork and feather arts from ancient Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador, exploring Andean cosmologies and cultural practices.
Microhistories of the Andes is open at the San Antonio Museum of Art, running through May 21, 2028. It's in the Golden Gallery at 200 West Jones Avenue, and it's curated by Kristopher Driggers, SAMA's curator of Latin American Art.
The exhibition brings together textiles, ceramic sculptures, paintings, metalwork, and feather arts from ancient Peru and Colombia, alongside more recent works from Bolivia and Ecuador. The pieces span a huge stretch of time, from the first millennium AD through to the twentieth century. A good part of the show comes from SAMA's own collection of more than 30,000 works representing 5,000 years of human history, and several of the objects are on view for the first time, coming from recent gifts to the museum.
Driggers takes 'microhistory' as his method here: instead of starting with the big picture, he looks closely at a single case and works outward. By following individual objects and their lives in the worlds where they were made, the show explores Andean cosmologies, cultural ideas about farming, objects of devotion and spirituality, and the history of materials across land and time. It's less of a general survey and more of a way to see how these larger themes lived in specific things.
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The New York Times named it one of the must-see shows of the spring, and their review frames it as more than just a primer on successful Pre-Columbian empires—they call it a sobering reminder of the inevitable ebb and flow of human societies. Admission is included with your museum ticket, so it's one more thing to see if you're already planning a day at SAMA.
