"Escultura Social" features the work of 20 contemporary artists from Mexico City. Photo credit: Dr. Lakra and kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm was first struck by the works of young, contemporary artists from Mexico City when she saw them on display at the 2003 Venice Biennial, a major contemporary art exhibition in Italy.

"It just grabbed me," says Widholm, an assistant curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. "They were using very basic, found objects to make these interesting, poetic sculptures."

Inspired, Widholm organized an exhibition featuring the work of 20 artists from Mexico City at the Chicago museum.

"Escultura Social: A New Generation of Art from Mexico City" comes to the Nasher Museum of Art this month and runs through June 7.

Following in the trajectory of conceptual artists Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol, these young Mexican artists turn recycled objects found at dumps and thrift stores - umbrellas, feathers, fishing rods, scarves, used auto parts - into wry social commentary and meditations on the nature of art.

Among Widholm's favorite pieces are Daniel Guzmán's "Used Beauty," a sculpture made of a discarded, ornate metal fruit basket dripping with gold chains, and Carlos Amorales' computer animations generated from a "liquid archive" of manipulated, reusable images.

"This is a distinct break in what most people know of Mexican art," says Widholm.

Born in the ‘60s and ‘70s, this generation's international style and do-it-yourself aesthetic distinguishes it from the muralist and neo-Mexican traditions. "They still refer to life in Mexico City, but they don't want to be labeled as ‘just' Mexican artists," she says.

Duke assistant professor of the practice Pedro Lasch, a Mexico City native whose installation "Black Mirror/Espejo Negro" runs concurrently at the Nasher through January 18, sees the show as a chance to communicate with American audiences.

"To me, art is like a theatrical space without a stage, and where we're all actors. I think of viewers as being as important as the artist," Lasch says.

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Exhibition: Escultura Social
Reception and panel discussion
7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, Nasher Museum of Art
Information: nasher.duke.edu/exhibitions_escultura.php; 681-2272