SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS at WMU

"SHOW ME YOURS PAPERS / A VER, Y TUS PAPELES?"
Curated by Miguel A. Aragón & Eddy López
EXHIBIT RUNS: AUGUST 19 - SEPTEMBER 20, 2025
CLOSING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 5:00PM-8:00PM​
Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery, Richmond Center for Visual Arts,
​Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
ALBERTINE MONROE-BROWN GALLERY

"NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL" Linocut on Shopping Bags by Carlos Barberena. 2020

Show Me Your Papers / A Ver, Y Tus Papeles?
Curated by Eddy López, Associate Professor, Bucknell University and Miguel Aragón, Associate Professor, CUNY Staten Island.

Featuring the works of Golnar Adili, Miguel A. Aragon, Carlos Barberena, Adriana Barrios, Tulu Bayar, Pamela Dodds, J. Leigh Garcia, Juana Estrada-Hernandez, Eddy A. López, Emma Nishimura, Patricia Villalobos-Echeverría, and Marco Sanchez.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people cross borders. At these crossings, governments ask individuals to present papers for verification of migration status, documents that restrict entry to those individuals lucky enough to be verified by proof.

For migrants without papers, the mundane question “Show me your papers/ A ver, y tus papeles?” is not mundane, but rather an impossible interrogation that forces these individuals to risk their lives in an effort to avoid being verified. Having papers, therefore, becomes a matter of life or death.

This exhibition presents artists whose work on paper deals with issues of borders, migration, dual identity, as explored through print media.