El Sueño Americano / The American Dream

Photographer Tom Kiefer’s El Sueño Americano / The American Dream is a traveling exhibition documenting the migrant experience at the U.S./Mexico border. Kiefer’s still-life photographs of the countless items confiscated from migrants that were deemed “non-essential” or “potentially lethal” bring humanity to the viewer. The exhibition features nearly 300 works, along with a revealing selection of migrant belongings. For the first time, the exhibition will also feature contemporary Mexican American artist Elizabeth Z. Pineda, whose artwork explores complex issues related to immigration.

Visitors to El Sueño Americano are confronted with Kiefer’s vibrant photographs of confiscated personal items he collected as a janitor at a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol processing facility in Southwest Arizona. Possessions include everyday items—shoes, bags, toiletries, food, and water bottles—along with family photos, heirlooms, rosaries, and Bibles. The exhibition asks the viewer to consider how objects form an integral part of identity and what is lost when someone is forced to give up those objects in pursuit of the American dream.

Elizabeth Z. Pineda’s work beautifully punctuates El Sueño Americano, exploring themes of identity, displacement, and migrant deaths in the Arizona desert. The exhibition features her film, Ceremonia from the Sin Nombre en Esta Tierra Sagrada series, which honors the thousands of migrant lives lost in the Sonoran Desert. The film is shown alongside artworks from Pineda’s Maíz series of cyanotype prints on corn husks and the Reverencia series of printed silk banners, documenting confirmed migrant deaths.