Ronny Quevedo's first institutional solo exhibition in the Midwest, "a l l s t a r s," has opened at the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign-Urbana. The show features works from the Ecuadorian-born, New York-based artist's recent past alongside a new site-driven installation, "a mother's hand" (2025), which incorporates objects from the museum's reinstalled Andean art collection. Using materials like wax, drywall, muslin, carbon paper, and gold-silver leaves, Quevedo creates abstract fields that evoke cartographies, constellations, dressmaking diagrams, and sports playbooks, weaving together autobiographical references to his seamstress mother and soccer-playing father with broader themes of cultural inheritance, duality, and cosmovisions.
This exhibition matters because it marks a significant milestone for Quevedo, who is already represented by Alexander Gray Associates and whose work is held by major institutions like the Whitney Museum of American Art. By integrating the Krannert's Andean collection into his practice, Quevedo recontextualizes historical objects—such as fibered tumplines and gold-alloy crown fragments—within a contemporary framework that balances their biographies with the weight of Andean time and legacies. The show's accessible design, including a viewing platform and visual guides, also underscores a commitment to inclusive museum experiences, making this a notable example of how contemporary artists can engage with and revalorize institutional collections.