DURHAM, NC.- An exhibition of recent work by artists living and working in Mexico City opened at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

The young generation of artists in “Escultura Social: A New Generation of Art from Mexico City" embrace non-traditional materials in their work, which includes video, photography, installation and performance. The exhibition will be on view from through June 7.

“The exhibition is exciting because it pushes our ideas about what is considered art,” said Kimerly Rorschach, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. “Here, conceptual art mingles with popular culture in sometimes humorous, sometimes provocative, yet very creative ways. We are pleased to present work by artists who have helped make Mexico City a thriving hub of contemporary art over the past 10 years.”

The term “escultura social,” or social sculpture, came from German performance artist Joseph Beuys, who said that sculpture, if made from everyday materials and displayed in a real-world setting, has the potential to affect society most broadly.

“The works are all socially engaged, they draw connections between nature and culture, they revisit conceptual practices/actions from the 1960s, and promote a demystified and democratic idea of art-making,” said exhibition curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm, who is the Pamela Alper Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, where it was on view June 23 through Sept. 2, 2007.