06/23/2026
Upcoming at Women & Their Work:
Spirit of Discrimination by Lari Garcia
Sat Jul 11, 2026 - Thu Sep 3, 2026
Opening Reception Saturday, July 11, 7-9pm
larí garcía visited La Casa de Las Almas (House of the Souls) in Puerto Rico to study transcripts that recorded conversations between spirit mediums and the dead. Almost a century old, this center was a refuge primarily for members of the working class and women who felt excluded from the Catholic Church; today it is one of the most renowned organizations of its kind.
In Spirit of Discrimination, garcía employs sculpture and installation to depict their startling discovery of extensive misogyny and gender-based violence preserved in one of the most prominent Spiritualist centers in Puerto Rico. Originally drawn to this place to trace the strands of French Spiritism, Indigenous Caribbean knowledge, and Catholicism preserved there, garcía sought to define materiality within the immaterial. What was discovered and is presented in this exhibition is the discriminatory “spirits” that inhabit religious spaces, particularly formal mediumship temples.
Spirit of Discrimination incorporates structures and works produced on site. Hollow wall framing holds suspended assemblage sculpture. Newspapers and other documents abruptly drop the viewer into a narrative—with or without context—and become poetic linguistic interventions throughout the gallery. garcía uses sculptural techniques of compression, piercing, and near rupture to evoke pressure, constraint, and the tension of something on the verge of breaking through. These gestures are directly informed by the narratives and conversations found within the featured transcripts.
Learn more about the show via the link in our bio.