El Paso Standard

EL PASO, Texas - The El Paso Museum of Art (EPMA) invites the community to view a live painting and completion of an inaugural art mural inside the Patricia and Jonathan Rogers Grand Lobby by local artist Marianna Olague.  

“We are thrilled to present the inaugural mural commission of EPMA: Frontera Forward, an initiative established to advance the understanding and appreciation of the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez border community through the arts,” said El Paso Museum of Art Director Edward Hayes Jr. “The mural from Marianna Olague is an inviting window into the vibrant South El Paso community that exists outside these walls.” 

The mural pays homage to the Ruben Salazar Apartments from the South El Paso Neighborhood but is also meant to look like any other complexes found around the city. Olague’s choice of a vibrant color aims to capture the colorful culture and history of the city.  

"Having to choose a muralist was challenging as there is a rich pool of talent in the community,” said El Paso Museum of Art Assistant Curator Claudia Preza. “After careful consideration and discussion, the EPMA staff collectively chose Olague as the inaugural Lobby muralist.” 

Visitors are invited to watch Olague paint the mural in the lobby and ask her questions about the process. An opening ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, February 3. Support for the project is provided by the Mellon Foundation.  

About Marianna Olague 

Marianna Olague is a painter and visual artist born and raised in El Paso, Texas, where she currently lives and works. Her work is about living in the borderland desert of El Paso, and she uses her family and close friends as models for brilliantly hued portraits. She has an MFA in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and a BFA from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Her work is in multiple private and public collections including Cranbrook Art Museum and the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at UTEP. Olague’s work has been shown in multiple exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit, the McNay Museum in San Antonio, TX, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Olague currently teaches drawing in the UTEP Art Department.  

The El Paso Museum of Art is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and beginning January 21, Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information on the El Paso Museum of Art, visit www.epma.art. 

Original source can be found here.