artistic facemasks

Depicted with a blue face and a majestic, colorful headdress, the face of the Mayan god of death, Ah Puch is depicted in this archaeologically-inspired mask from Mexico. The Angel Ceron Artisan Association presents this mask, which is handcrafted from ceramic by local artisans.

Alejandro Chávez crafts a mirror frame rooted in Andean tradition with four different vignettes. At the top, people harvest tunas, the red fruit of the prickly pear cactus. To the left, merchants offer warm blankets in a market stall and to the right they sell handcrafted masks. Used during the Carnival celebrations preceding Lent, the masks appear in an astonishing array of animals, human and fantasy faces. Along the bottom, dancers perform the Scissors Dance. Known as retablos, these traditional dioramas feature figures carefully molded from ceramic plaster and painted by hand.