Infinitas Gracias: Mexican miracle paintings

Associated media

London – closing 26 February

The Wellcome Collection is showing an unusual exhbition of Mexican votive paintings – small paintings created as religious offerings to saints. Many are now in museums in Mexico though some of those on show come from two sanctuaries in mining towns. Along with 100 such paintings, the Wellcome Collection is showing photographs, news reports, films and interviews. This exhibition opens up a very Mexican world.

The paintings often tell stories connected with the reason for making the offering to the saint. They feature everything from domestic dramas to revolutionary violence, traffic accidents to gunfights – in every case someone felt that only a saint’s intervention could help, and the picture was commissioned. Those on show date from the 18th century up to the present. Thousands of people still go on pilgrimages to major shrines where many images remain and new ones are added.

At the Wellcome professional illustrators have been turning visitors’ stories into contemporary votives, also on view, as are a number of films. Catch the show before it closes on 26^th February

Wellcome Collection
183 Euston Road
London
NW1 2BE