The Highland Maya of Guatemala
In his Nevada Neighbors talk, artist Michael Plyler gives viewers a close-up look into his decades of photographing the Highland people of Guatemala, making sixteen trips there between 1982 and 2018 that totaled almost two years in the country. www.ccainv.org/plyler-highland-maya/
The Capital City Art Initiative’s online series of Nevada Neighbors public talks includes interviews with artists or curators. Viewers are invited to watch the presentation online at https://youtu.be/g7IrHKWucpc
In the Courthouse Gallery, 2023, CCAI exhibited the elegant black and white portraits and community views from Plyler’s decades of Guatemalan documentation; www.ccainv.org/plyler-selected-works/ His Nevada Neighbors narration further extends his classic coverage, this time in color.
Join Michael as he gives you an intimate look at this 4,500 year old culture; its history, accomplishments, and its continuing erosion. Oppressed by the Conquistadores and caught in the middle of a violent civil war, the Maya carry on with dignity and pride. This slide-illustrated lecture reveals the glory of their past and places them in their present-day context.
Plyler narrates a tour including the ancient temples and glyphs plus images of Mayan’s communities and customs. His portraits highlight the people with whom he interacted over the decades. He said, “The cultural erosion I have seen over those 36 years has been considerable and painful to witness.”
Plyler’s work is held numerous collections in including the Heard Museum, the San Diego Museum of Man, The Museum of the American Indian, the Museo Ixchel in Guatemala City, and the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamerica in Antigua, Guatemala. Fifty-six pieces of this body of work were placed into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in 2013. In 1993, he received a Visual Artist Fellowship from the Utah Arts Council. He lives in Carson City with his wife.
CCAI is an artist-centered nonprofit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, illustrated talks, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.
The Initiative is funded by the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Carson City Cultural Commission, U.S. Bank Foundation, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and CCAI sponsors and members.
For additional information, please visit CCAI’s website at www.ccainv.org.