Carlos Carmona

XOLO YO: Remembrance and Renewal

The Tender Psychopomp

When does an inherited motif stop being an image and become a bond?

In XOLO YO, Carlos Carmona—a self-taught painter from Mexico—treats painting as an act of continuity rooted in heritage, family, and everyday life, using bold color and devotion to connect his work to his roots and lived experience in the present.

The series begins with an origin story: Carmona writes that his father once painted a Xoloitzcuintli that later appeared on a Mexican postal stamp, and the image endured for him as a symbol of legacy and identity—one that, over time, enables a bond between generations.

He returns to the motif not as quotation or nostalgia, but as inheritance—something received with care and carried forward through renewed seeing.

At the center of this work stands the Xoloitzcuintli, revered in Mexican cultural memory and, within Mexica tradition, associated with guiding souls through the dangers of the journey to Mictlán.

National Geographic describes the “Dog of Xolotl” as created to guard the living and guide the souls of the dead through Mictlán. In this light, the Xolo can be understood as a psychopomp—a guide across thresholds—yet. Carmona renders that role with intimacy rather than spectacle: a tender psychopomp, a relational presence through whom “guidance and loyalty” become legible as lived commitments.

Carmona’s phrase—“remembrance and renewal”—names a disciplined balance between honoring what is received and keeping it alive in the present tense; the bond the exhibition proposes is material—painting as a durable site where father and son, symbol and self, remain in conversation across time.

February 2 - 27

Opening Reception: Feb. 3 • 4-5 p.m.

IG: xolo_yo_11

Free Admission

supporting Mexican rights